pythagorean Meantone?

Jason Kanter jkanter@rollingball.com
Mon, 18 Feb 2002 16:06:00 -0800


The A you refer to is not A440, but EVERY A in the pythagorean temperament.
The historic temperaments are all described as offsets in cents from Equal
Temperament. So, if C is 12 cents sharper than the ET, *every* C will be
sharper by 12 cents than the ET setting. Thus it makes no difference in what
sequence you list these offsets, as long as there is one for each of the 12
notes.

The resulting chart is NOT a prescription for a tuning sequence.

In the charts that I am developing, which will be posted on Bill Bremmer's
website, I am also adding information about beat rates for major 3rds and
5ths. This information *does*, of course, vary by octave. I am currently
using the F3 to F4 octave, simply because that's the temperament octave that
I learned aurally. If most aural tuners use some other octave to set the
temperament, please let me know asap! (before I go too far in creating
charts).

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jason kanter * piano tuning * piano teaching
bellevue, wa * 425 562 4127 * cell 425 831 1561
orcas island * 360 376 2799
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> From: "Joseph Garrett" <joegarrett@earthlink.net>
> Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 13:43:11 -0800
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Subject: pythagorean Meantone?
> 
> I'm not sure, but the temperament listed, starts at A440 (0.0) and goes UP
> from there. Not being to experienced in HTs, doesn't the temperament go DOWN
> from A440? (That is if you are using A440 as the pitch criteria, rather than
> C.)
> Any thoughts on this?
> Reagards,
> Joe Garrett, RPT, (Oregon)
> 



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