WTK/WTC/DWK

Jonathan Walker writes:
<<... I do not doubt that, for
example, the "48" were intended for well-temperament and not for equal
temperament; because the evidence (including the title WTK!) clinches
the issue, I can afford to dismiss anyone who thinks otherwise as
simply ignorant of the relevant facts.>>

I think it is a mistake to draw this conclusion from the term
"wohltemperirt" in the title. The meaning is far from clearly defined.
It's a rather uncommon term; there may only be two theoreticians in
the 17th and 18th century who used it: Werckmeister and Sorge. At
first it's used in a loose way by Werckmeister, meaning only "well
tempered" or "well tuned". Later he uses it to denote a class of
tunings with which can be played in all keys and which contains no
wolf intervals. Sorge's interpretation is virtually the same.
Therefore it can mean either equal or unequal temperament. Noteworthy
is also that they spelled "wohl temperirt".
A debate on this issue has been on this list in the past however, which
I don't want to restart. But I do have doubts.

Reference:
Rudolf Rasch: "Wohltemperirt en gelijkzwevend",
_Mens en Melodie_ vol. 36 no. 9, Sept. 1981, pp. 264-273.

Manuel Op de Coul coul@ezh.nl

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-------------------- Begin Original Message --------------------

Message text written by INTERNET:tuning@ella.mills.edu

"The BF Tuning system is a set of corrections to put 12-tet guitars
in better tune by moving the nut two millimeters nearer the bridge and
making small unspecified adjustments for each string. "


-------------------- End Original Message --------------------

Interesting. I've had to that nut correction on two instruments. It
mostly came from the nut being much higher than the frets as it often is on
guitars by Spanish makers. For most other guitars I'm personally familiar
with, two millimeters would be too much.

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