Bach again

The Bach "chestnut," as Reinhard said, is rather enduring, it seems. I
have a few more comments. First, when I say "Bach," I am actually using
his name as a representation of that general period in Western music...I
don't just mean him, per se. There were tons of musicians back then. It
also seems that tunings were in a much less settled state at that time
than they are now, with well temperaments, meantone, equal temps, and
most likely others, all vieing for attention, and musicians trying to
decide which tunings were appropriate for what situation.
For example, when Bach jammed with the great lutenist, Sylvius Leopold
Weiss, did they use equal temps while they played? How were lutes fretted
back then? Bach liked the lute sound so much that he had a clavier built
that sounded like a lute. Also, when Bach arranged the 5th cello sonata,
and the 3rd violin partita for lute, was he using equal temps? When he
wrote flute sonatas, what tuning were the flutists using? How about his
gigantic works, like the St. Matthew Passion? Well tempered, or equal? Do
we know, or are we guessing (however intelligent our guesses)? We also
know that Handel had a keyboard with, I believe, 16 tones/octave...was
this a common practice then? Did Handel use 16 tones/octave extensively?
These are all valid questions, to me, and they only open the door to
many more questions about historical tuning practice...it is a
fascinating subject, to be sure.
Mself, I believe that Bach, and most likely many others, used various
tunings, depending on the context of the piece, and the instrumentation.
Bach was nothing if not very practical, so to think that he would switch
between systems is not too farfetched. As to what he would have ideally
preferred, are there any writings on this subject? If so, I would very
much like to study them....It is, again, a fascinating subject...Hstick


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