The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #52641 Message #2032051
Posted By: Jack Campin
21-Apr-07 - 01:35 PM
Thread Name: Is the tempered scale overrated?
Subject: RE: Is the tempered scale overrated?
It is absolutely dead certain that Bach did *not* have equal temperament in mind for any piece he ever wrote. We don't know for sure what temperament he had in mind for The Well-Tempered Keyboard, but "anything reasonable" sounds like a good bet. He circulated it in his lifetime and didn't provide an accompanying secret decoder ring. He wouldn't have got many takers if it didn't work on the usual unequal temperaments of his own time.
It is very easy for instruments to play together in large heterogeneous groups whatever the tuning they use. There have been court orchestras in the Far East much larger than any present-day symphony orchestra.
This thread is the Sargasso Sea of spam hits. If you wish to post a real message here ask a mod to reopen it. ---mudelf