Don,

Have a look at the link I gave earlier to the Dolmetsch website. Brian Blood, who wrote it is a recorder maker and knows his stuff. Also there is an extensive list of references at the bottom of the page. I reckon that should bring you up to date.

In our recorder group, the Musical Director will often spend a bit of time tuning the final chord in a piece we are playing. She does this by getting those playing tonic and fifth to sound and once those are OK she brings in the thirds and gets the players to adjust the pitch of the third slightly - lowering pitch a little for a major chord and raising pitch for a minor chord - to give a clear sounding chord. This, I suspect is bringing the chord as close to just intonation as is possible. Is this what string quartet players do instictively? If so is it really Pythagorean intonation which has pure fifths and fourths but considers the third a dischord?