Appropriate Historical Temperaments

A440A@aol.com A440A@aol.com
Wed May 16 07:19 MDT 2001


Stephen writes:
<<Scaling of historical instruments was not adjusted for temperament. There
must be something strange with this harpsichord, maybe bad wire?  Must be bad 
wire they have if it's so unstable. Who
made this haprischord, Ed? >>

Greetings, 
   It is a "Giutarri" French single.  The action was built by the Harpsichord 
Clearing house people, and it was purchased without any input from me. 
   There is quite a variety of string types in it originally, so the scale 
was obviously the object of some consideration.  It is a transposing 
instrument. 
  The reactions of dullness from the G#'s in meantone  may have been 
intonationally inspired, I don't know. It does seem that those notes which 
are flattened the most have a different tonal output.  We have little call 
for the meantones here, and it has been a couple of years since the last one. 
Perhaps I will run it through again if a program calls for it. 
Thanks for  the note, 
Ed Foote 
Vanderbilt



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