NY Times Article

[Michael Jorgensen]

HI Stephen,
       I called my father, Owen Jorgensen, with your interesting question.  He
provided me with some additional insights into the history of the term "well
temperament" you might find interesting. He does not credit himself with the
creation of the term, but considers that he may be the first to use it in
print.  The term was in regular use by the 1960s among aficionados and students
of the historical temperaments.  Ms Hafner of the NY Times is correct in her
assertion that the Well Tempered Clavier helped to evolve the term.
Werckmeister uses the word "well" in reference to his own temperaments.
    Before Dads' first book, he had grammatical concerns about the term and
enlisted the help of academicians in English department to study the matter.
They concluded that the term is acceptable because the word "well" has been
used historically as an adjective.  It is very rare today but still exists.  A
close friend and faculty member from Medical School also studied the matter and
concluded that the term should not be changed.  The disciplines of medicine,
science and technology consider terms carefully and give precedence to clarity
and understanding over grammatical concerns.  Possible alternatives were all
deficient in some way and would have been counter to the evolving spoken word.
In addition to what Ed Foote has said,  the quasi equal temperaments are also
typically circulating temperaments.

-Mike

A440A@aol.com wrote:

> Stephen writes:
> >For the noun, what was wrong with a direct
> >translation of the original German terminology? i.e. "circular" or
> >"circulating temperaments", something which certainly describes them quite
> >succinctly.
>
> Greetings,
>    I respectfully suggest that "circular" doesn't make enough distinction to
> adequately separate it from "equal", which is also a circular temperament.
>     My personal choice is to call them  simply "temperaments", and begin
> dilineating them later.  However, I do think Owen chose an elegant solution
> to nomenclature by using a term that was not only historically descriptive,
> (wohl), but also universally associated with the genre,(the WTC).
>      I like the term,  it is easily grasped by the public, and provides a
> ready identity to a class of tunings that are rapidly becoming well known.
> Regards,
> Ed Foote