Temperament The Idea That Solved Music's Greatest Riddle

[Kent Swafford]

On 12/21/01 7:08 PM, "A440A@AOL.COM" <A440A@AOL.COM> wrote:

> Anybody seen the book by Stuart
> Isacoff, called something like "Solving The Riddle"  about ET?

Sure. It's "Temperament The Idea That Solved Music's Greatest Riddle",
published by Alfred A. Knoph. Amazon.com has it.

Isacoff places the development of temperament in the context of world
history and the growth of civilization and scientific knowledge. Some of the
great minds of history figure in the development of temperament (Galileo,
Leonardo, Newton), and Isacoff tells the story in an interesting way.

The book provides a primer on the basics of tuning, and vividly demonstrates
that the temperament arguments that rage now are merely a continuation of
the arguments that have raged for centuries.

Piano tuners will quibble with a few details in the book, but it is a good
read.

Kent Swafford