The two commas

Clark caccola@net1plus.com
Thu, 20 Apr 2000 12:40:28 -0100


Ric,

> It goes so deep as to get out of the 12 note scale as Lindley ,
> New Groves, remarks, "According to Mersenne, Titelouze had a  harpsichord
> with 19 notes per octaved tuned in equal microtones --  the equilivent, as
> it happens, of 1/3 comma mean-tone."   How did they know this?


1/3SCM has pure 6/5's; Salinas, who published the first (known)
description of this meantone reportedly had a 19-tone positive organ.
Charles Luyton's(?) 'cembalo universale' has 19-tones per octave, while
theorist and composer Guillaume Costeley advocated 19tET (as did Joseph
Yasser in this century).

Lynn Wood Martin's article on the 31-tone Sambuca lincea refers to 1/5
tones, properly 31tET but as likely it was tuned in 1/4SCM - their
similarities which Christiaan Huygens brought to attention. 31-tone
instruments include the Sambuca lincea, Vicentino's arcicembalo, the
Harmoniehammerfluegel mentioned here a few months ago, and the organ at
the Stichting Huygens-Fokker.

Meantones can be worked out arithmetically.


Clark


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