Ravel, Kawai & 1/7 Comma Meantone

[Richard Moody]

Saturday night, April 8, the French pianist, Désiré N'Kaoua continued his
series, again tuned in
1/7 Comma Meantone.    "L'Intégrale de L'Oeuvre pour Piano Seul de Ravel"
. . . . . . .  .The 1/7 Comma Meantone Temperament (1/7MTT) was invented by
a Frenchman, Jean Baptiste Romieu in 1758.
.  . . . . . .  . . Inharmonicity changes that 1/11 value by an unknown
amount which is your problem to solve.  Tuning any Equal Beating Historical
Temperament (HT) is much easier by far
Bill Bremmer RPT


Did N'Kaoua request 1/7 Meantone?   If so just wondering why he chose that
over the 1/6.    Mark Lindley wrote in New Groves, "..Romieu in 1758
expressed preference for 1/6 comma mean-tone because he liked the relative
amount of tempering that it allots to 5ths and 3rds."  ("Temperaments"p666).
1/7 comma wasn't mentioned.  Sources?
    If Ravel expressed preference for any kind of tuning that would be
interesting.  After all if temperament is so important sooner or later the
preferences of the composer should be considered....what the composers
themselves _said_ they preferred.
    As far as the ease of tuning yes I agree some HT's seem to be just that,
the prime consideration given for ease of tuning, the music taking back
seat.
    Equal beating IMHO doesn't appear to be known historically, it was
discovered after Helmholtz made known the nature of partials (1860-80's )and
probably not until calculating machines could compute beat tables
    As far as inharmonicity,  again I agree...a problem for the machine
user.  The ear naturally adjusts.   ---ric