Temperament questions

[KeyKat88 at aol.com]

Greetings,
 
           In the Alfred edition of the Bach's Well Tempered Clavier, edited 
by Willard A. Palmer, it states the following:
 
          "Meantone temperament, the system in general use before the 
adoption of the well-temperament, favored specific keys. A sharp could not function 
as a flat and vise-versa. ... Meantone temperament is actually more in tune in 
the keys it favors than our present day system (E.T.) in any key."
 
          If this is true, then how can this be?
 
1.  Are the intervals of the approx 1BPS for the 4ths and the 3:5BPS for 5ths 
different in meantone?              How does he mean "more in tune" than our 
present day system? 
 
2. Does this "more in tune-ness" have to do manipulating the comma 
differently in some keys?
 
2. Are there any books to read that will set me straight on this subject?    
 
3. Can I tune my old upright to meantone to hear this sort of thing, or will 
the "modern" scale design of it not allow a meantone tuning to be properly 
executed and heard as true? 
 
Thank You,
Julia Gottshall
Reading, PA
 
 
  



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