Non-Equal Temperaments

Conrad Hoffsommer hoffsoco@martin.luther.edu
Fri, 02 Apr 2004 14:40:33 -0600


Don G,

At 14:00 4/2/2004 -0600, you wrote:
>Pure fifth in what key?  Between what two notes?  You can't have pure fifths
>between all pairs of notes that are a fifth apart.



What temperament?  Which tonal center?

Just randomly picking out one example from Jorgensen's "Tuning the 
Historical Temperaments by Ear"

P117 - Fogliano Mean of 1527 - Tonality of C/a.
Pure Vs:   E-B, F-C, A-E, C-G, C#-G#, if I'm reading things correctly

I never said all fifths were pure. The fact that they _can't_ all be pure 
is why we have to temper in the first place!

All the methods of tempering are efforts to split that difference.  The 
more times you split the difference, the fewer pure intervals until you get 
to ET, where there are none.



Conrad Hoffsommer - Music Technician
Luther College, 700 College Dr., Decorah, Iowa 52101-1045
Vox-(563)-387-1204 // Fax (563)-387-1076

The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted.

---Wm. Shakespeare - Merchant of Venice


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