Historical temperaments
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- Not to be confused with Subgroup temperaments#Historical.
Historical temperaments are temperaments which saw use during historical times and places. The term is most commonly used to refer to tunings from medieval, early modern or industrial-age Europe.
Examples
Here are some examples of historical temperaments. Some of these temperaments saw widespread usage, some saw limited usage, and some were discussed merely as thought experiments. Some were referred to by their current name, while others went by a different name to the modern one, but still described the same mathematical object.
- Meantone
- 1/2 comma (Fogliano 1529)[1]*
- 19edo (Costeley 1558)[2]
- 1/3 comma (Salinas 1577)[3]
- Lucy (Harrison 1775)[4]
- 2/7 comma (Zarlino 1558)[5]
- 5/18 comma (Smith 1749)[6]
- 50edo (Henfling 1710)[1]*
- 7/26 comma (Woolhouse 1835)[7]
- Golden (Kornerup 1930)[1]*
- 1/4 comma (Aron 1523)[8]
- 31edo (Vicentino 1555[9] (possibly)[10] & Huygens 1691[11])
- 2/9 comma (Rossi 1666[12] & Drobisch 1852[13])
- 74edo (Riccati 1762)[1]*
- 3/14 comma (Riccati 1762)[1]*
- 1/5 comma (Verheyen c. 1600[14] & Sauveur 1701[15][16])
- 43edo (Sauveur 1701)[15][16]
- 55edo (Beer <1722)[1]*
- 1/6 comma (Silbermann <1748)[17]
- 4/25 comma (Marsh 1809)[18]*
- 1/7 comma (Romieu 1758)[19]*
- 12edo (Chu Tsai-yü 1596)[20]
- Well temperament
- Kirnberger[21]
- Neidhart[22][23]
- Hof 1732 (court)
- Grosse stadt 1732 (large town)
- Kleine stadt 1732 (small town)
- Dorf 1732 (village)
- Temperament ordinaire
- Vallotti[26]
- Werckmeister[27]
- Werckmeister III
- Werckmeister IV
- Werckmeister V
- Septenarius (Werckmeister VI)
- Young [28]
See also
- Seigneur Dieu ta pitié - a historical (1558) composition for 19edo, important to the history of tuning
- Ancient Greek musical tradition
- Kellner well temperament - Dr Herbert Anton Kellner's approximation of Bach's well temperament, from his book Wie stimme ich selbst mein Cembalo (1975).
- Temperament extradordinaire (a modern temperament inspired by the historical Temperament ordinaire)
- Tempered: Qcmte84a
- Just: Secor5_23TX
- Pre-Columbian South American musical traditions
External resources
Many of these include diagrams and measurements of historical temperaments:
- A Clear and Practical Introduction to Temperament History Parts 1-9 (Fred Sturm)
- Bach-Style Keyboard Tuning (Lindley & Ortgies 2006)
- Harpsichords Wiki - Tuning
- Neidhardt’s 21 temperaments of 1732
- rollingball.com Historical Temperaments Visualised (PDF version)
Notes
*historical source needed
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Meantone - Tonalsoft - Joe Monzo, 2005
- ↑ Seigneur Dieu ta pitié - Guillaume Costeley, 1558
- ↑ De musica libri septem - Francisco de Salinas, 1577
- ↑ Concerning Such Mechanism - John Harrison, 1775
- ↑ Le istitutioni harmoniche - Gioseffo Zarlino, 1558
- ↑ Harmonics, or The philosophy of musical sounds - Robert Smith, 1749
- ↑ Essay on musical intervals - Wesley S. B. Woolhouse, 1835
- ↑ Toscanello de la Musica - Pietro Aron, 1523
- ↑ L'Antica musica ridotta alla moderna prattica - Nicola Vicentino, 1555
- ↑ Theories of chromatic and Enharmonic Music in Late 16th Century Italy - Chromatic systems (or non-systems) from Vicentino to Monteverdi - Karol Berger, 1980
- ↑ Lettre touchant le cycle harmonique - Christiaan Huygens, 1691
- ↑ Sistema musico ouero Musica speculativa - Lemme Rossi, 1666
- ↑ Über musikalische Tonbestimmung und Temperatur - Moritz Wilhelm Drobisch, 1852
- ↑ Abraham Verheyen's letter to Simon Stevin, c. 1600
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Archives of the Académie des Sciences, Paris, Procès verbaux, vol. 20, February through April 1701
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences (Paris, 1701), pages 299–366
- ↑ Gespräch zwischen einem Musico theoretico und einem Studioso Musices von der Prätorianischen, Printzischen Werkmeisterischen ... Temperatur, wie auch von dem neuen Systemate ... Telemanns zur Beförd. reiner Harmonie. - Georg Andreas Sorge, 1748
- ↑ Containing the Perfection of Eighteenth-century Temperament, the Lost Art of Nineteenth-century Temperament, and the Science of Equal Temperament, Complete with Instructions for Aural and Electronic Tuning - Owen Jorgensen, 1991
- ↑ Tuning and Temperament: A Historical Survey p. 126 - James Murray Barbour, 1953
- ↑ Prince Chu Tsai-Yü's Life and Work: A Re-Evaluation of His Contribution to Equal Temperament Theory - Fritz A. Kuttner, 1975
- ↑ Die Kunst des reinen Satzes in der Musik - Johaan Philipp Kirnberger, 1774
- ↑ Sectio canonis harmonici - Johann Georg Neidhardt, 1724
- ↑ Gäntzlich erschöpfte, mathematische Abtheilungen des diatonisch-chromatischen, temperirten Canonis Monochordi - Johann Georg Neidhardt, 1732 (digitized copy)
- ↑ Élémens de musique, theorique et pratique, suivant les principes de Monsieur Rameau - Jean-Baptiste le Rond d’Alembert, 1752
- ↑ Dictionnaire de Musique - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1767
- ↑ Della scienza teorica e pratica della moderna musica - Francesco Vallotti, written 1728, published 1779
- ↑ Musicalische Temperatur - Andreas Werckmeister, 1691
- ↑ Philosophical Transactions pages 143-147 - Royal Society of London, 1800