what's with the new temperaments?

Conrad Hoffsommer hoffsoco@martin.luther.edu
Thu, 13 Mar 2003 11:22:37 -0600


At 10:55 3/13/2003 -0600, you wrote:
> >after telling the story of finding an old business card:
> >"Well tempered tunings"
>
>
>So  he couldn't think of anything else but to call it "well
>tempered"
>Yep.  When writing history there is that old "prove your source".
>But personal anecdote is acceptable to an extent


Without being able to interview the distributor of that business card and 
ascertain exactly what was meant, we are left with a linguistic 
problem.   Not what is is, but how "well" is used.

Is "well" an attribute of the tuning or the tuner's ability?

"How well did you do that temperament", means something entirely different 
than "how did you do that well temperament".

I could well be that he was just advertising his ability to do tempered 
tunings well.

No more, no less.

Conrad Hoffsommer - Music Technician
Luther College, 700 College Dr., Decorah, Iowa 52101-1045
Vox-(563)-387-1204 // Fax (563)-387-1076

- People never grow up, they just learn how to act in public. -Bryan White



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