SV: Aaron and Meantone

Billbrpt@AOL.COM Billbrpt@AOL.COM
Mon, 22 Oct 2001 19:38:15 EDT


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In a message dated 10/22/01 6:10:56 PM Central Daylight Time, 
pianola@online.no (Ola Andersson) writes:


> /7 comma and 1/8 comma must be a modern temprement. They should not be 
> called HT. I think tuning MT with a computer is another consept than what 
> Aaron and his friends was doing. I guess there is nothing wrong with 1/7 MT 
> but it is not a HT. It was a comment to Bill Bremmer who called it at 
> modern pianotuning or something wich I agree it is.
> 
> By the way I often tune a 1/12 comma meantone:-)
> 

The 1/7 Comma Meantone is indeed an HT.  It was designed by Jean-Baptiste 
Romieu in France, 1755.  It can be found in Owen Jorgensen's first 
publication, Tuning the Historical Temperaments by Ear.  Although there are 
some historically documented 1/8 Comma Well Temperaments, there is no 1/8 
Comma Meantone.  It, therefore, is a modern temperament.

All of the different Comma Meantones are easily constructed with an ETD.  By 
definition, a Meantone Temperament is a chain of 5ths all tempered exactly by 
the same amount.  There can be variations but a pure Meantone Temperament is 
constructed this way.  The Comma to which they refer is the Syntonic Comma 
whose value is 21.5.  If you divide 21.5 by 4, you get 5.375.  Therefore, a 
1/4 Comma Meantone's 5ths are all theoretically 5.375 cents narrow.

You can create a Meantone of any fraction you want.  A properly constructed 
1/8 Comma Meantone has 5ths of about 2.5 cents narrow (when adjusted for 
inharmonicity).  This will produce mild 3rds like those of the Victorian 
Temperaments and a very mild "Wolf" 5th (about 5 cents wide).

The Modified Meantone Temperaments are a whole class of Temperaments which 
may temperament researchers ignore.  What they do is to take that "Wolf" of a 
Meantone Temperament and divide it between two or more of the 5ths among the 
black keys.  This smoothes out the dissonance of the "Wolf" itself and the 
3rds on that side of the temperament.

My EBVT is, in fact, an Irregular 1/8 Comma Modified Meantone Temperament.  
Normally, a Modified Meantone Temperament could not satisfy the Rules for 
Well Tempered Tuning written by Andreas Werkmeister but in this case, the 
modifications allow it to just barely meet those rules.  It can therefore 
also be considered a Victorian style Well Tempered Tuning.

ET is actually the equivalent of a 1/11 Syntonic Meantone Temperament.  21.5 
divided by 11 is 1.954, virtually the same as the -2 cent ET 5th.  The 
Ditonic (not Diatonic) Comma value is 24 cents.  ET is also a 1/12 Ditonic 
Comma Meantone.

If a customer asks me if there is a choice of how to tune the piano, I always 
say, "Yes, a nice, sounding, Well Tempered Tuning or that awful 1/11 
SYN-tonic MEAN-tone tuning.  Which would YOU prefer?"  So far, none has ever 
asked for ET.  }:)

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin

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