source file: mills2.txt Date: Sat, 12 Jul 1997 04:16:32 +0200 Subject: Re: Historical temperaments From: Joseph Downing On Fri, 11 Jul 1997, Paul Hahn wrote: > On Fri, 11 Jul 1997, Joseph Downing wrote: > > Absolutely NOT! I know of no evidence that EQ was any more than a theory > > occasionally espoused at that time. It is just TOO HARD to tune equal > > temperament without either a LOT of training, or an electronic device. > > > 2. If one cared to, one could find a lot of people on earlymus-l and > hpschd-l who can tune passable ET without electronics--it might not be > 1 cent accurate, but key color variation will be subtle to > indetectable. One recommended technique bypasses the usual tuning by > fifths and tempers the cycles of major and minor thirds, using fifths > only as a final check. It is true that there are a lot of people today who can tune a passable 12TET with no more reference than a starting pitch. But Jorgensen (thanks for the name) and others point out that this technique was not known until late in the nineteenth century. There are no early references to counting beats per second, etc. One of the feature of Meantone tunings (and well-tempered tunings are a sub-category of mean-tone) is that they depend upon finding the 'mean' pitch. A common 18th century technique would have you tune several intervals purely, then advise: Tune D to Bb purely. Now sharpen the D until Bb/D beats at the same rate as D/F#. Most anyone without too much experience can do this. It takes a LOT of practice to hear 12TET thirds and fifths. Joe Downing, in Syracuse Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sat, 12 Jul 1997 07:19 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA01957; Sat, 12 Jul 1997 07:20:15 +0200 Date: Sat, 12 Jul 1997 07:20:15 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA02046 Received: (qmail 22788 invoked from network); 12 Jul 1997 05:19:55 -0000 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 12 Jul 1997 05:19:55 -0000 Message-Id: <970712011120_1546112020@emout09.mail.aol.com> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu