source file: mills2.txt Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 09:59:17 +0200 Subject: Historical temperaments From: "Richard Moody " >From postings.... >I wonder why meantone tunings were abandoned. >Could it have been due to the limitations imposed on composers and >performers, when using twelve fixed pitches per octave? Almost certainly that was the most basic reason. >...but rather that the well temperaments >were an abandoned cul-de-sac within a generally meantone era, In terms of required resources that makes sense, but not in terms of actual usage to the best of my knowledge. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I know of no evidence that meantone was never actually used in any appreciable abundance in the Classical Era or later. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - etc. Greetings List I would be interested to learn about the use of meantone in any Era. Whatever tuning schemes were used, Equal Temperament "proved" better. At any rate, that is what pianos are tuned to,and most all keyboards today. When ET was first used for tuning, (and I assume it was on pianos other wise it would have been on harpsichrods, or even earlier on organs) that is an interesting question. (My guess is after 1850) We know that ET is based on the 12th root of 2. When that formula came into being and by whom I would like to know. The other question is could Equal Temperament exist without knowledge of the 12th root of 2 formula?? I think so, but that is for another post. Regarding the 12th root of 2, it doesn't mean much if you don't know the frequency of the note. When did it become possible to measure the frequency of a musical pitch? The frequency of pitch also allows determination of harmonics. Harmonics is what produces the beats (or lack of) by which any instrument is tuned, especially when tuning by intervals such as the fifth, fourth, third, octave and so on. But one doens't need to know frequencies or math formulas to hear beats resulting from tuned intervals. The schemes for tuning intervals on the keyboard is interesting, however after tuning pure fifths it soon becomes apparent that one fifth will be "wild" (and consequently its fourth). (and only one fifth which is interesting) Because of this one lone "wolf" we have the conecpt of temperament. Keep in mind this is a phenomona of keyboards of 12 semitones to the octaves. Orchesterial and choral performances don't seem to be encumbered by temperament. Richard Moody piano tuner technician Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 7 Jul 1997 17:16 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA06350; Mon, 7 Jul 1997 17:16:44 +0200 Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 17:16:44 +0200 Received: from [144.91.3.20] by ns (smtpxd); id XA06312 Received: (qmail 13821 invoked from network); 7 Jul 1997 15:07:09 -0000 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 7 Jul 1997 15:07:09 -0000 Message-Id: <199707071104_MC2-1A5F-9BF8@compuserve.com> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu