source file: mills2.txt Date: Sun, 13 Jul 1997 14:05:03 +0200 Subject: Re:Historical Temperaments From: Edward Remler Some of the many remarks about meantone and equal temperament in the digest 1131 are treated in the 'History of Equal Temperament' and 'History of Meantone Temperament' Appendices written by Ellis in his translation of H. von Helmholtz's 'On the Sensation of Tone' (Dover Edition). The following points Ellis brings out are relevant to the discussion. 1) Broadwood's remarks relate only to ET's introduction to England. 1811 is the year he wrote an article describing and advocating it in England. He claimed it was in general use but it is clear that he must have meant that in reference to continental Europe which England had been separated from by the Napoleonic wars. In fact ET was not generally used for pianos in England until 1846, and no English organ was tuned to ET even by the time of the (British) Great Exhibition of 1851. 2)Prior to the publication by Mersenne of the correct frequency ratios for ET in 1636 it would have been practically impossible to tune in ET. Subsequent to that time it spread through continental Europe. Mersenne, the founder of physical acoustics, discovered harmonics and beats between them and the history of the use of beats to tune in ET is unknown to me, but exact rules for ET tuning are relatively unimportant. First of all, of course, tuning is never exact. Second of all the St. Jacobi-Kirche organ in Hamburg was tuned to ET as early as 1688 which suggests that at least one practical method for tuning in ET based on Mersenne's discoveries was already known. Third, von Helmholtz (p.321 of Dover Edition) quotes Marpurg who quotes Kirnberger, a pupil of J.S. Bach, that he required all major Thirds to be sharpened, and this can only mean sharpened with respect to MT which is 14 cents flatter the ET. This is important not only to show Bach's preferences, but to indicate how clavier tuners probably tuned in ET as a practical matter at that time (pre 1750). Furthermore, Bach's son Emanuel is quoted in 1753 as declaring ET as 'required' for the 'true art of playing the clavier'. 3) There is no doubt that all the great masters of the classical period considered ET to be the ideal. (There are also remarks about this by Charles Rosen in, I believe, his 'The Classical Style'.) Some further personal opinions: ET, of course, had nothing at all to do with any bad influences of the industrial revolution, over-idealizations of science, etc., which many people unfortunately seem to imply; these masters were strong minded intellectually and knew what they wanted aesthetically. They were not brainwashed followers of popular enthusiasm but aesthetic leaders. I am also happy to stand with them in disagreeing with the remark often made here and elsewhere that ET is some sort of a 'compromise' system of tuning. ET is certainly not and should not be considered in the same league as MT which is a compromise. ET was a great discovery-both aesthetic and scientific-and without it, Western music could not have achieved its unique glory. These remarks notwithstanding , I also think that the exploration of alternative systems as discussed by this group and the playing in MT of pieces meant to be plated in MT is great (although I could do without the accompanying numerology which is physically and physiologically meaningless). Ed Remler Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 13 Jul 1997 16:32 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA02995; Sun, 13 Jul 1997 16:32:38 +0200 Date: Sun, 13 Jul 1997 16:32:38 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA02984 Received: (qmail 11201 invoked from network); 13 Jul 1997 14:32:31 -0000 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 13 Jul 1997 14:32:31 -0000 Message-Id: <199707131029_MC2-1ABE-9CE1@compuserve.com> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu