Am Thu, 10 Mar 2005 18:05:00 -0500 schrieb Roman Turovsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> The meantone was likelier in a church setting, because the organ might > have > stilll be tuned that way. The opera had no organ, therefore no meantone. > By > 1700 opera would modulate sufficiently to forget about meantone. From the semitone entry in the New Grove, copied from http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Meantone.htm : > <>< The large diatonic semitones of mean-tone temperament became so > familiar during the Renaissance and early Baroque periods that Mersenne > described them in 1637 as one of the greatest sources of beauty and > variety in music, and Doni in 1639 asserted that singers at Rome > disliked being accompanied by an instrument tuned in equal temperament > because of its small semitones. In the 18th century a certain > theoretical prestige was enjoyed by 1/6-comma mean-tone temperament and > by the corresponding theoretical division of the octave into 55 equal > parts, five of which constituted a diatonic semitone and four a > chromatic one. References to this division of the whole tone by Sauveur, > P.F. Tosi, Nassare, Sorge (who attributed it to Telemann), Romieu, > Quantz, Leopold Mozart and others suggest that equal-tempered diatonic > semitones were still regarded as smaller than ideal. Neidhardt said so > explicitly in 1732. ><>< From http://music.cwru.edu/duffin/BaroqueTemp/XMT.intro.html : > <>< The differentiation of the accidentals is discussed by, among > others, two of the most important instrumental theorists and one of the > most important vocal theorists of the mid-18th century: violinist > Leopold Mozart (1756), flutist Johann Joachim Quantz (1752), and singer > Pierfrancesco Tosi (1723). Mozart remarks that, according to their > "right" ratios, notes with flat signs are "a comma higher" than those in > the same position with a sharp sign. Similarly, in discussing > temperament adjustments in performances with a keyboard instrument, > Quantz says "notes like D# and Eb, etc. are differentiated by a comma." > These two comments are clear in the light of Tosi's earlier writing: "A > whole tone is divided into nine almost imperceptible intervals which are > called commas, five of which constitute the major semitone, and four the > minor semitone.É An understanding of this matter has become very > necessary, for if a soprano, for example, sings D# at the same pitch as > Eb, a sensitive ear will hear that it is out of tune, since the latter > pitch should be somewhat higher than the former." With this information, > we can calculate that the octave is divided into 55 commas: a major > scale, for example has five whole tones of 9 commas each (45 commas) and > two major semitones of 5 commas each (10 commas) for a total of 55 > commas. It's called the 55-Division since it divides the octave into 55 > equal parts. Not having the "cents" system, that is the "rough and > ready" way they thought about the relationship between various > intervals. Its close correspondence to extended 1/6 comma meantone can > be seen in the two right columns of the table above, where almost all of > their respective intervals are within a cent or two of one another. > While I prefer 1/6 comma meantone because of its acoustically pure > tritone and diminished 5th, these two temperaments are, for all > practical purposes, the same. Thus, extended 1/6 syntonic comma meantone and the 55-Division are virtually the only tuning systems to satisfy Tosi's, Mozart's, and Quantz's definition of the difference between sharped and flatted notes like D# and Eb, G# and Ab, etc. For those outstanding virtuosi of the mid-18th century, those theorists whose influence is felt to the present day, extended 1/6 comma meantone is the embodiment of proper ensemble tuning. ><>< I still have to read this on the topic, it's cited everywhere you go: Haynes, Bruce. "Beyond temperament: non–keyboard intonation in the 17th and 18th centuries." Early Music 19 (1991), 357–81. Best regards, Stephan -- Erstellt mit Operas revolutionärem E-Mail-Modul: http://www.opera.com/m2/ To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
