Both keyboard instruments with split keys and fretted instruments with extra frets (either full extra frets or tastini, as both existed) are able to play the enharmonic shifts. All is possible; not all is desirable.
I think what one sees in the adjustments to instruments is that full enharmonics enjoyed a bit of a vogue, but then practicality settles in, and you see quite a number of organs with a few split keys. And the ones with ALL split keys disappear. And this goes pretty much with the music--it is really nice to have B Major and C minor, but no one really needs the G flat. Even in the Muffat example, with just one split key one can easily play the D Major and B Flat major in a variety of temperaments. Even with just lowering the sixth fret one can play "high-low" solutions. I think the real question for me is as follows-- Am I missing something by not using meantone (or modified meantone) for 17th century music? And the answer for me is, Yes, Es Muss Sein. (Beethoven, 1826) Practically, it more often is que sera sera (Livingston, 1956) YMMV When you get to Handel and Locatelli, where you really DO need the G flat, it is clear that the rules have changed, and you are better off with Neidhardt 24 or even Handel's own temperament, which no one uses for Handel. What you have then is kind of a "breaking point" for the number of extra keys. dt I At 08:18 AM 6/19/2008, you wrote: >From: "howard posner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>>My opinion and conclusion so far remains that no dogma will ever >>>prevail in that field, and no theory, as attractive as it may be, >>>will ever reconcile what was has, after all, never been reconciled >>>by our predecessors in the 16th - 18th centuries. >> >>Perhaps more accurate to say our predecessors doubtless resolved >>tuning questions in different ways, just as we do. There must have >>been, for example, a standard Dresden court orchestra way to tune or >>Hamburg opera way to tune. >Which could be too far from ET, considering the number of key an >opera or an oratorio goes through. >A violin sonata by Georg Muffat modulates enharmonically from D >major to Bb major. There goes meantone out the window. >RT > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
