source file: m1383.txt Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1998 07:33:47 EDT Subject: Jorgensen & Ramble From: A440A Greetings, Inre <<"Tuning the Historical Temperaments by Ear" by Owen Jorgensen Gary writes: > I get the impression however that it's mostly about 12-toned well temperaments. >That as opposed to talking about the earlier (e.g., JI) tunings, or the more >recent unusual tunings, like 31TET or quartertones. >Is that true?>> Yes. ->2nd cup coffee kicks in<- As is Jorgensen's much larger book "Tuning"; Michigan State University Press; East Lansing, Michigan; 1991. This is a more focused look at the era betwen 1600 and 1900, and deals with the transitional stage from "restrictive to non-restrictive" styles; (very little on JI, good solid meantones,( a few), and a wide variety of the well temperaments). It is presently considered the "Bible" of tuning theory by many historical tuners, as it provides a context for the last 800 years of "Technologically-Driven Intonation", (as McClaren would say) It is also of interest to tuners that Jorgensen gives the cents deviation from ET for each temperament in the book. You can read the history, biography, and theory of the tunings, and then just plug them in to your machine. This is what is making it so easy for today's piano techs to replicate them. With the availability of programmable tuning machines, this sort of information is "instant history in a box" when tuning for the classical crowd, who almost always find it a revelation. I have also been surprised at the number of songwriters here in Nashville that like their own pianos tuned in a well temperament. (nobody writes in F# around here.......) It is possible that technology, in the form of the tuning computers and printed info from Owen, will once again push intonational change. Interesting, because this will require some "going back to go forward", but I think the next generation of tunings will arise from a generation of musicians that mature under the influence of more than one system. Regards, Ed Foote http://www.airtime.co.uk/forte/history/edfoote.html