temperaments

On Tue, 26 Sep 1995, mcgeary thomas nelson wrote:

> Is is usually the pattern, that it is the mathematicians, the theorists,
> the gentleman natural scientists, and the like, who are fascinated by
> the mental problem of temperament that explored all the sublted
> subtle, that is, temperaments.

I believe this is true. I read somewhere once (in Barbour?) that e.t.
was first worked out by a Chinese mathematician incredibly far back in
the past. And the author pointed out that in the Chinese musical
system there was no need for it.

(If someone knows more recent scholarship on this, I'd be interested
to hear of it.)

--
Tom Parsons | To me, being an intellectual doesn't mean knowing
D.T.L. | about intellectual issues; it means taking
| pleasure in them. --Jacob Bronowski

Here are some other possible automated or semiautomated just intonation
schemes Lars, or others on the list, might want to look into:

You might want to report on Wendy Carlos' method of retuning on the fly by
using a separate one-octave keyboard that plays nothing but tells what key-frame
in which to interpret the pitches of the keys on the main keyboard that does
play notes.

I don't know where such documentation exists (perhaps John Chalmers knows of
some), but you could perhaps also report on Ivor Darreg's justifying organ from
.. the mid sixties I think it was.


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