Is "well-tempered" and "equal-tempered" the same thing? I don't think
so. I was under the impression that equal-spaced half steps produced
bad-sounding music. The key of E is not supposed to sound exactly like the
key of C (except one third higher). That's why the composer dictates the
key signature. Each key has its own peculiaritiesies because the notes are
not equally spaced. Knowing and using the peculiarities of each key is
part of the art of composition.
One time I watched a professional piano tuner and was surprised to see that
he didn't use any electronic pitch measuring device. He only used ONE
tuning fork for middle C, and he tuned all the other notes from there! I
said, "why don't you just tune each note separately to its correct
frequency" and he said that would sound awful. He said it is impossible to
tune any piano perfectly, but it is always a compromise of many different
factors. In other words, it is an art.
At 11:01 AM 4/4/01 +0100, Phil wrote:
>We wouldn't get very far without the equal-temperament scale though
>would we? The equally-tempered scale distributes the comma of Pythagoras
>around all twelve intervals so all intervals are very slightly wrong.
>It's the only way you can tune an instrument with fixed tunings and
>have it sound reasonably OK in all keys.
John Henckel alt. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Zumbro Falls, Minnesota, USA (507) 753-2216
http://geocities.com/jdhenckel/
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