Montal and Aristoxenes (wasHT Experience)

[Michael Jorgensen]

A enlightening trick to try,
     Tune Equal Temperament using only forths, fifths, and the octave without
listening to any thirds and sixths.  When the temperament is all tuned and you
think you have it, check the thirds and sixths and see what you really have.
-Mike

Richard Moody wrote:

>     The modern idea is that that ET really couldn't be defined
> until the coincident partials were understood and their beat rates could be
> calculated did not happen until after Helmholtz. (ca 1870).
> However  the idea that tuning each 5th slightly flat (Mersenne in 1638 said
> "imperceptibly flat")
> would eliminate the wolf or "close the circle" has existed at least in
> theory since the time of Pythagoras.  This is the rudementry form of ET.
> Just  how much  "imperceptibly flat" is,  has eluded
> theorists until Helmholtz showed that beats of intervals occur between the
> coincident partials.
>