TEMPERAMENT

 Most music historians attribute the equal tempered scale to Bach, citing his "Well Tempered Clavichord", the famous forty-eight preludes and fugues. This work, and Bach's enduring genius gives him the historical spotlight in this regard. However, it should be noted that two other men were working on equal temperament and antedated Bach by many years. The first was Andreas Werckmeister, a student of acoustics, who worked out the cycles per second of the equal tempered scale in 1691. Bach was only six years old at the time. The second man who deserves recognition is Johann Neidhardt, a Prussian bandmaster. He had hoped to arrive at equal temperament by use of the monochord, a single string on a box marked with mathematical accuracy and use of a bridge to show the required tone with accuracy. Further proof that these two men originated equal temperament is found in the 1752 edition of Critica Musica, that states definitively that Werckmeister and Neidhardt "invented" equal temperament.

A Quest for Art in Temperament 

by Owen Jorgensen, Emeritus Professor of Music, Michigan State.

"From early renaissanceto the late nineteenth century, all various forms of historical temperaments were in practice. Included among these were the quasi-equal temperaments which developed into the equal temperament, as well the many varieties of meantone temperament and other forms. They were all used to varying degrees in different times and places. Musicians had the freedom to use whatever temperaments suited their needs and aesthetic tastes. This freedom disappeared in the end of the 19th. century when the science of tuning began to dominate over the art of tuning. The foundations were prepared for the dominance of one single temperament, the modern theoretically correct equal temperament, to rule as the one and only temperament used in common practice from around 1917 to the present".

"Twentieth- century musicians soon forgot that any choices other than equal temperament were ever available. Developments in recent years, however, indicate that a new era is approaching whereby musicians will again be able to choose among various temperaments that best serve their creative needs". (i.e. historical temperaments made readily available by advances in electronic tuning device technology). 

"Equal temperament is the form of temperament used predominantly today. The style of tuning invented by Werckmeister has come to be know as well temperament. In well temperament, one can modulate through all the tonalities in the same way as in equal temperament. In both temperaments, 100% of the harmony is usable. Well temperament, however, is based on art, tonality, and music aesthetics, while equal temperament is based on atonality and science".

"In well temperament, the most used chords are tuned with purer harmony in order to uphold the ancient ideals of beauty developed during the Renaissance. Consequently, the chords that are used the least will need to absorb a larger share of inharmonious tuning, while at the same time not be musically intolerable, but rather provide contrasting special effects. The degree to which certain chords should be favored, or the amount of contrasting effects that should exist between the most-used chords and least-used chords is guided by aesthetic taste during the tuning process. This is the art in well temperament. There is an infinite number of possible well temperaments, but there is only one equal temperament with twelve equal semitones to the octave".  

"The Music Lesson" Oil painting by 18th. century Rococo artist Jean-Honore Fragonard.

Etiquette of Piano Tuning

 Always wear a silk hat. If that article fits you, it looks well, says an English contemporary. When you enter a house, place your card on the dish the servant presents to you; it should be small and plain, and engraved, and if you are working for a music firm, their name should appear in the lower left hand corner, very small. Always wear spotless linen; it is expensive, but it counts. Upon entering the parlor, place your hat, inverted, upon the finest reception chair, and contrive to drape  your handsome overcoat upon some expensive chair or lounge. Open the piano with great ostentation, and try to find a mouse nest in it. If this is impossible, then as the next best thing, try to discover moths; the older and richer the family, the more likely they will abound. In tuning the piano be sure to set a faultlessly equal temperament, and call attention to the fact and explain it. It will help to mystify the people. Should you be so unfortunate as to break a string, examine the broken ends with your pocket microscope before the wondering people, and inform them that the par centum of carbon in the steel wire was insufficient, that it became crystalline, and broke because it was not strong enough to hold. If you should have occasion to summon the servants, use the electric annunciator in the drawing room. It's there for that purpose. Do not spit on the wall or floor behind the piano or in the ornamental fireplace; use the cuspidor. It is more stylish.                                                              

     From the Music Trades, Vol. 2, No.3, April 18, 1891

Mid-18th. century oil painting by Martin Maytens, depicting an Italian family of musicians. The small octave spinet is being played by Christina Antonia Somis, accompanied by her father on cello and brother on violin.

  PIANO FAMILY TREE

PLUCKED STRINGS

HARP: This instrument of very ancient lineage, can be simply defined as an open frame over which is stretched a graduated series of strings, set in vibration by plucking with the fingers.

LYRE: An ancient Greek instrument, like a small harp, in which strings were fixed to a cross-bar between two arms and plucked by fingers or plectrum.

PSALTERY: A medieval instrument, played by plucking with a plectrum or the fingers, trapeze-shaped, and usually strung horizontally over a soundboard.

 PLUCKED STRINGS - HARPSICHORD FAMILY

CLAVECIN: French name for the harpsichord, shortening of clavecinon, first used in 1611.

CLAVICEMBALO: The Italian word for harpsichord. It derives from clavichordium, found in a German poem of 1404 which lists the instruments of courtly love. The Italian is occasionally corrupted to gravicembalo, and regularly shortened to cembalo.

SPINET: Small type of early keyboard instrument first mentioned in 1496. A theory exists it was named after Giovanni Spina, an instrument maker active in the late 15th. century. Another is that the name derives from its thorn-like plectra, spinetta being the diminutive of spina, a thorn.

VIRGINAL: This plucked keyboard instrument was first mentioned in 1460, and it is widely accepted that the name derives from the fact that young ladies were regularly depicted playing the instrument.

HARPSICHORD: The harpsichord is a wing-shaped instrument, in which the strings are plucked mechanically. It was developed during the 15th. century, but there are illustrated representations of the instrument from nearly a century earlier. The largest member of the harpsichord family, it is fundamentally a mechanized psaltery. 

 STRUCK STRINGS

 DULCIMER: A shallow closed box, over which stretched wires to be struck with two wooden hammers, held in the player's hand. Still widely used around the world for traditional music.

PANTALEON: Invented in the 18th. century, was a large dulcimer with as many as 185 strings.

CIMBALOM: Similar to the dulcimer but with as many as 128 strings, which are struck with mallets and dampened by the player with his forearms. It is associated with the Hungarian Gypsies of Central Europe.

PIANO: The full name of this celebrated instrument is the pianoforte or fortepiano, piano meaning soft and forte meaning loud. With regard to its strings and hammers, it is a descendant of the dulcimer. With regard to its keyboard, it is a descendant of the harpsichord and the clavichord.

"Woman at a Virginal with a Man" painting by seventeenth century           Dutchmaster Jan Vermeer. The Virginal is a small harpsichord, with one     string per key plucked by a quill. Harpsichords, along with Clavichords in   which the strings are struck by a brass tangent, heralded the age of the    piano-forte. The instrument on the floor is a Viola da Gamba.