Question regarding Well Temp. Tuning

Conrad Hoffsommer hoffsoco@martin.luther.edu
Mon, 14 Aug 2000 20:31:21 -0500


Subject:
Which temperament for which music??

Another criterium, perhaps?

The strangest thoughts went through my mind this afternoon as I was tuning
my department head's home S&S D.  Since I have not had any time to do any
research, I'll pose the question to the assembled wisdom of the list.

Could a rough approximation of an [note: "an" _not_ "the"] appropriate
temperament be inferred by the range of the instrument for which it was
originally composed? {stringed keyboard, that is...}

I'm thinking of a really rough correlation such as:

Less than 5 octave - Pythagorean possible, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 comma Meantone.
5 octave           - any Meantone which fits the key signature or Well
temperament.
5 1/2 - 7 octave   - Well, Victorian, possibly ET.
7 1/3 & larger     - Probably ET, though key appropriate Well possible.

Has definitive research been done along this line, or am I just recloaking
a chronological chart?


©Conrad Hoffsommer - Luther College, Decorah, IA

My mind not only wanders, sometimes it leaves completely, 
and tomorrow a search party is starting.


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