1/7 syntonic comma meantone

[Dennis Johnson]

        With so many different treads going on at the same time now I
probably should not start something new. Yet, for those of you who are up
for a very interesting temperament try this one and let me know what you
think. I first tried it on the recommendation of Tim Farley, and have been
keeping one of our new practice grands here decorated in this fashion. I
think you will be very surprised at its unrestrictiveness, due to the magic
of porportional beating triads. To make it easy, I am posting the SAT
numbers from my own aural tuning on a small Asian grand. You can use these
to get it very close, then just clean it up so that all thirds and fifths
are regular. These readings are from C3 to C5 and read at the 5th octave.

        I'm interested to hear any opinions or impressions that others
experienced in non-ET tuning will have concerning this temperament and
specifically its unrestrictiveness. Some of you may have seen my postings
about this meantone elsewhere, but I had not given SAT numbers. Please feel
free to reply to me privately, as I realize that this may have limited
interest.

C3       0.0
C#3     -6.9
D3      -0.7
D#3      3.9
E3      -1.7
F3       3.2
F#3     -3.7
G3       0.8
G#3     -5.6
A3       0.0
A#3      5.3
B3      -0.7
C4       0.0
C#4     -5.7
D4      -0.5
D#4      4.5
E4      -2.0
F4       4.0
F#4     -2.5
G4       1.0
G#4     -5.3
A4       0.0
A#4      5.0
B4      -0.7
C5      -0.5


        Try this on one practice piano, don't say anything, and just see
what happens.  At least if you do try it, please, do the whole piano, not
just one octave. Thanks.



Dennis Johnson
St. Olaf College
johnsond@stolaf.edu