source file: m1351.txt
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 21:15:01 -0700

Subject: Temperament in English Virginal Music

From: rumsong@cadvision.com (Gordon Rumson)

Greetings,

I'm still working on the temperament lecture and want to thank those people
for their helpful suggestions and advice in previous posts.

But as I ponder this material one question pops up as an aside:  what
temperament would be suitable for English Virginal music?  I just played
through a Fantasy ut, re mi etc, by John Bull from the Fitzwilliam
collection.  There is a note:

'This interesting experiment in enharmonic modulation is thus tentatively
expressed in the MS;  the passage proves that some kind of "equal
temperament" must have been employed at this date.'

I doubt that it proves that.  But what temperament would have been
characteristic of the time?

All best wishes,

Gordon Rumson



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