source file: mills2.txt Date: Tue, 11 Mar 1997 09:17:57 -0800 Subject: Re: well temperament (C#/Db) From: kollos@cavehill.dnet.co.uk (Jonathan Walker) Will Grant wrote: > > Well, I stand corrected re key or pitch in reference to > Jonathan Walker's remarks, but I don't see what essential > difference it makes to what I was saying. > > Of course, you can't tune one choir of strings to more > than one well temperament at a time; but you could tune > differently on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or you could tune > one 8' one way, and another 8' another, couldn't you ? I'm afraid this will get you no further: it can never be the case that one well-tempered scheme will give you a C# (and not a Db), while another will give you Db (and not C#). _Any_ well-tempered scheme will simply give you C#/Db -- neither can be in a favoured position. The only way I can construe you here is to conclude that you are confusing well temperaments with other keyboard tunings, like meantone, which don't close a chain of fifths into a circle. If this isn't the case then I'll be happy to hear your explanation, but from what you've said so far I can't come to any other interpretation. While you haven't said anything to suggest it, how about this: is it remotely possible that you were thinking of, say, two notional well-tempered schemes, one of which would give you a very good approximation of a 5/4 above A, while the second would instead give you a similarly good 5/4 below F? So the first you would call your good C# tuning, and the second your good Db tuning? This is as much as I can do by way of speculating about your intentions. I'll wait to see what you have to say. > In fact, for 1/4-tone music, etc., ordinary harpsichords > are, I think, a lot more convenient than ordinary pianos. What, if they have two ranks? Vishnegradskij managed well enough with two pianos: each is in standard 12TET, but in relation to each other, they are tuned a 2^(1/24) apart. I still find it a little comical, because I'm tempted to listen to each part separately -- the musical style was not particularly daring for its times, beyond the tuning aspects; but perhaps I should try harder. -- Jonathan Walker Queen's University Belfast mailto:kollos@cavehill.dnet.co.uk http://www.music.qub.ac.uk/~walker/ Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Tue, 11 Mar 1997 21:51 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA02192; Tue, 11 Mar 1997 21:51:31 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA02190 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id MAA29974; Tue, 11 Mar 1997 12:49:27 -0800 Date: Tue, 11 Mar 1997 12:49:27 -0800 Message-Id: <3325C431.1A8C@dial.pipex.com> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu