Different temperaments (was Chord finder) - Linux-audio-user

14 Jul 2012

On Sat, Jul 14, 2012 at 7:40 AM, Bob van der Poel &lt;bob(a)mellowood.ca&gt; wrote:

...

 BTW, what does all this have to do with my original request for a
 little software program :)

Apologies. Subject line corrected :-)

...
  But wasn't Beethoven writing long after Bach had
figured out the
 tempered piano tuning? Besides, assuming that Beethoven was playing a
 keyed instrument ... well, unless he had some extra keys ...

 Yes, you are right that equal temperament is less that perfect ... but
 on keyed instruments (and this will include fretted stuff as well) one
 doesn't have much choice when playing.

 Heres some evidence that Mozart played with 'more keys' if he could get
them
http://tonalsoft.com/monzo/55edo/55edo.htm

Bach used Werckmeister-III, today we use equal temperament. They are
crudely similar in that all keys are usable.  In Werckmeister however all
keys are subtly different. In ET all are the same. So for Bach, it seems he
was such a genius that that is not recognized/understood even 4 centuries
after him. More at http://www.kylegann.com/histune.html#hist3