source file: mills2.txt
Date: Sat, 23 Sep 1995 05:22:45 -0700

Subject: Re: In defense of Rasch.

From: Paul Hahn <Paul-Hahn@library.wustl.edu>

On Fri, 22 Sep 1995, Aleksander Frosztega wrote:
>Just to set the record straight, Prof. dr. Rasch's work in the field of
>temperament is not aimed at undermining the beauty and use of unequal
>temperaments and all the research that has gone into them in this century.
>Contrary to what most people seem to think, he is a great lover of unequal
>temperaments.

"Personally, I dislike the many Pythagorean major thirds that arise with
these tunings when playing preludes and fugues with five to seven sharps
or flats." (p. 306)

Again, to be fair, he says later that he doesn't intend the elimination
of unequal temperaments, just to extend the view that ET may well be the
most appropriate tuning for some pieces like WTK.

BTW, there are only two Pythagorean ditones in Barnes' temperament.

>               But, as any other good scientist, he cannot ignore the
>*evidence* - that being in this case, that there was a steady growth of the use
>of equal temperament throughout the 18th century. [snip]

Well, I'll give you that (though see Jorgenson for an argument that no
one really tuned accurate ETs until a century or so ago when beat rates
were calculated and began to be used), but the point is that the
evidence that _Bach_, specifically, used ET is tenuous to the point of
nonexistence.

--pH (manynote@library.wustl.edu or http://library.wustl.edu/~manynote)
       O
      /\             "Do you like to gamble, Eddie?
     -\-\-- o         Gamble money on pool games?"

Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl
           with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sat, 23 Sep 1995 14:45 +0100
Received: from  by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI)
	for <coul@ezh.nl> id FAA00228; Sat, 23 Sep 1995 05:45:12 -0700
Date: Sat, 23 Sep 1995 05:45:12 -0700
Message-Id: <Pine.SOL.3.91.950923072511.26965B-100000@library>
Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu