source file: mills2.txt Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 10:12:26 -0800 Subject: Re: Reply to Bill Alves From: alves@osiris.ac.hmc.edu (Bill Alves) >I think Brian's point is that music at the time tended to have at least 14 >different notated notes, so that if meantone tuning were to be used, the >12-note keyboard would lead to some horrible wolves. Just tuning of course >would require vastly more keys, assuming it could be considered a >satisfactory tuning (which I don't happen to believe). 14 notated pitches per octave in 1850? Split keys were certainly used in the 17th and 18th centuries, but 12 keys per octave was still the norm. 1/4 comma meantone with 12 keys per octave is still quite usable on the vast majority of music written in the 18th century, and well temperaments rendered 12 even more useful. I can see how mass production necessitated standardization of the construction of keyboards, but I remain unconvinced that 12TET is the only possible (or even most likely) result of such standardization. Bill ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ Bill Alves email: alves@hmc.edu ^ ^ Harvey Mudd College URL: http://www2.hmc.edu/~alves/ ^ ^ 301 E. Twelfth St. (909)607-4170 (office) ^ ^ Claremont CA 91711 USA (909)621-8360 (fax) ^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 18 Nov 1996 19:30 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA16692; Mon, 18 Nov 1996 19:31:53 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA16530 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id KAA03721; Mon, 18 Nov 1996 10:31:51 -0800 Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 10:31:51 -0800 Message-Id: <199611181829.SAA08441@gollum.globalnet.co.uk> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu