source file: m1361.txt
Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 14:33:13 -0600 (CST)

Subject: Re: Question:

From: mr88cet@texas.net (Gary Morrison)

>What's the difference between "Well" and "Meantone"?  I think I understand
>Meantone now, but I keep seeing references to Well.  It's 12-tone, right?

   Yes, well-temperaments are, as far as I can tell, strictly 12-toned.

   Best I can tell, there's no single definition that covers them all.
There have been dozens of them.  But the general gist is that they are
tunings that were explored during (roughly) the mid-17th through mid-19th
centuries.  They are, in a very approximate sense, about equally well in
tune in across all keys.

   That "very approximate sense" is in contrast to meantone, which sound
identical in all keys until you could bang into the "wolf fifth", at which
point they're dreadfully out-of-tune.  Well temperaments don't do that, but
they don't sound the same in every key either.  And some keys definitely
sound more "out of tune" than others, but not to anywhere NEAR the kind of
extreme you encounter with the wolf fifth.