In a message dated 98-03-06 17:46:20 EST, you write: << We DO NOT know that Thomas Jefferson indeed tuned pure fifths. However to research what this tuning might have been, I decided to start with pure fifths. >> If you are interested, I can supply the information on how to tune this sequence with 1/5, 3/11 or 1/6 syntonic comma 5ths which are far more likely to have been used. If you compare the sound using any of these with the pure 5ths, I'm sure that you will agree that they are more plausible. The fact that Jefferson did not stipulate how much tempering was to be in his 5ths did not mean that they were not tempered. Putting a certain audilble yet tolerable beat in the 5ths might well have been such common practice at the time that it did not seem important to spell it out, much the way that so many seem to believe today that ET goes without saying. I can find documentation to support this too if you'd like but all you need to do is look at the 1/5 meantones and some of the supporting documentation of them in Jorgensen's book, Tuning, and you will find it, see in particular, page 93. Regards, Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin
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