Hi Ed, So, without "reading the book", do you think it's possible to narrow it down to maybe 3 "meantone" temperaments? (For different general periods.) I should explain that we have a professor over the 4 harpsichords who wants one (the Willard Martin) kept in Werkmeister (I chose WKIII), two (a Neupert and a Tadashi) in EQ or mild WT, and this Daly (Italian) which he wants kept in Meantone. When I showed him all the options for meantone he wasn't sure of which one he wanted. He's a great guy and wonderful organist, but it seems that most the professors I've talked with think "Meantone is Meantone..." if you know what I mean. I always hated Baskin Robbins. Just give me three or four flavors... (G) Regards, Jim Busby -----Original Message----- From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of A440A at aol.com Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 4:14 PM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: Re: [CAUT] Meantone (Which?) Jim writes: << And no, they don't know what they want either. I'll read through this stuff and see if I can make a more educated guess as to what they might need with this instrument. Right now I put a "John Marsh 1809" and they seem to like it. I have no idea what it really is, It just seemed to be less strident in some keys... I'm certainly a rooky at choosing temperaments. >> Greetings, The optimum tuning is dependent on the music that is to be played. A harpsichord is tuned so often that it shouldn't be a problem moving things around. The Pietro Aaron 1/4 meantone is the basic foundation of most early music, (prior to say, 1650), but there are MT's that, while not providing totally Just intevals in all eight usable keys, are still able to create that consonant sound of Justness without actually being tuned that restrictively. If a restrictive tuning is not acceptable, try the various Bach interpretations and see which one finds favor. The Rollingball site should have the "Bach" tunings by Charles Francis, Kellnor, Lehman, and perhaps others. These might just be the right temperament for a harpsichord that sees some variety time period music. Regards, Ed Foote RPT http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html <BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> See what's free at http://www.aol.com.</HTML>
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