Who invented ET

[Richard Brekne]

A440A@AOL.COM wrote:

> Greetings,
>
>
> <<Mersenne gives very close monochord lengths for ET in 1635.>
>    I read Jorgensen to state that Mersenne gave the definitive mathematical
> ratios for ET.
>
> <<James Broadwood writes how to tune it in 1811.>>
>     I was not aware that Broadwood wrote "how" to tune it, just that his
> factory was then using "ET",( but Hipkins and Ellis seem to offer a different
> point of view>

Lets get this point straight shall we ?? The only way anyone could have come
anywhere close to tuning a piano type instrument to something close to ET before
the late 1800's (if indeed not later then that) was if they tuned the temperament
to some exterior pitch source... note for note... such as a monochord for example
and then tuned octaves upwards and downwards.

That probably was possible to do... and indeed some of the stuff I have seen
written between advocates of monochords and advocates of the old style of ear
tuning (which relied on a highly trained sense of pitch) resemble often enough
discussions between todays modern ETD tuners and todays "ear tuners" (which are
quite different from yesteryears ear tuners in that these later are in reality
not ear tuners at all, rather they are beat counters).

As far as Bach and ET is concerned.  The closest Bach could have gotten to ET was
limited to the closest any tuner could have matched a monochord to a piano, which
in turn was dependant upon how good the monochord was (relative to ET) in the
first place. More then likely Bach was more concerned with demonstrating what
Jorgensen terms "non restrictive" temperaments in his work relative to "ET".

Frazier has left the building.  :)

>
> Regards all,
> Ed Foote RPT

--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway
mailto:Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no