Meantone, my personal adventure

[A440A@AOL.COM]

Greetings, 
 Richard writes:
>Now if I can just find out how terms like "1/4 syntonic comma" lead to
>the
>flattening of fiths, in Meantone, and how this was determined by the
>tuners of the times before 1750.   

     There are four fifths between C and E.  If you tune the C-E third pure,
and then begin tuning fifths,  you tune the G, then D, then A and C. These
four fifths must be tempered by 1/4 comma each if the C-E third is to remain
pure. So, this is the string of fifths that are tempered about 5.8 cents each
to achieve 1/4 meantone. Spending a little time on this problem will get you
surprisingly close to equally divided commas. That  had to have been an
important skill in the early days.  Following these four, you tune pure thirds
from them.  

Moody again, 
>	The exciting part of historical temperaments is that they can be rendered
>on modern pianos----that the predictions of physists of the 17th and 18th
>century can be translated into cents and therefore plugged into 20th
>century tuning machines. 

     I agree.  This technology has opened the door to an entirely new world of
sounds from our instruments.  I personally think that the piano can use all
the help it can get to compete with other attractions these days.   
     I know that the variety tunings have been getting my customers excited
about their playing, and I bet stores could sell more pianos if they had more
alluring sounds on the floor, but that is another subject. (ask me about
sucker punching customers........)
 
>In the interest in "hearing the music as the
>masters did" one must realize that the instruments on which they heard
>their music  no longer exist execpt as museum pieces or reproductions.
 
    Agreed.  I would like to suggest a different intent than "hearing the
music as the
>masters did".  I call it hearing the music less compromised. 
< takes out the small soap box, dusts it off, and teeters up for a quick one> 

It is one thing to move the music from pianoforte to the modern grand, but it
is entirely more distructive to destroy the intonation in the process! 
   I suggest that use of its original style temperament  for a piece of music
restores   information which the composer installed in the piece.  The
serenity of pure intervals and the abruptness of contrasting modulations are
aspects that ET doesn't have.  The unequal tunings are more complex
arrangements of the pitches, and the music that results is also more complex. 
 
>If performers ask, "Is it possible to tune the modern piano
>in Meantone by ear?", I would hope to have something to offer.  
      Meantone is a very easy tuning to do by ear, instructions are
everywhere.  The real challenge is sell these tunings to people that don't
know anything about them.  This requires some context from which they came,
and confidence that you are recommending an appropriate tuning.  With the
advent of choice comes risk, ( and reward).

 >	Now if I can just figure out how much 1/4 syntonic comma flattens fifths
 from the aural perspective.  
     just make all those four fifths equally out of tune,  have one no better
than another while keeping the C-E pure. 
Regards, 
Ed Foote