Bach Temperaments (more than one)

[A440A at aol.com]

Jon writes: 
<< Your offsets do not jive with the site:
http://www.larips.com/ >>

Damn right!  Mea dumbly culpa. 
      What I inadvertantly did was post the offsets for the temperament that 
J. Charles Francis derived from Bach's Signet Ring Seal of 1722 ! ( so much 
for keeping one file of all the "Bach" tunings). 
      We may profit from comparing this to the Lehman tuning found on the 
Larips.com site.  And if we are to go even farther with this, the "Barnes" tuning 
that was derived from a statistical examination of Bach's usage is also worth 
considering, though it appears to have less harmonic distortion, thus, 
falling closer to a "normal" well-temperament. (Thanks to Paul Bailey for pointing 
out more resources than I would have thought to have included). 

The Lehman offsets are: 
C    5.9
C#  3.9
D    2
D#  3.9
E   -2
F    7.8
F#  2
G    3.9
G#  3.9
A    0.0
A#  3.9
B    0.0
C    5.9

     The Lehman tuning contains more contrast, however, if examined from a 
standpoint of syncronicity,(m3/M3),  I think we see that there is greater 
correlation in the more highly tempered keys of the Lehman, which may effectively 
reduce some of the perceived "busyness" of those keys.  Jason's pictures on the 
Rollingball site are the logical place to research this.  
     The more important point is that there is much to be learned about 
Bach's music by playing it in these tunings.  While tuners may find profundity in 
the difference, it will be a rare pianist that can distinguish between the 
Lehman and the Francis tunings without side by side comparisons, or extensive 
experience with either before trying the alternative.  
   Sorry for the mis-information, 
Regards, 
 
Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html