Temperaments, Russian trip

I was intrigued by the recent discussion between Dale Scott and Paul
Erlich about circulating temperaments. James Murray Barbour himself
suggested a Temperament by "Regularly Varied Fifths" which is similar in
concept to Paul's save that Barbour used a linear increment and Paul a
trigonometric formula. Barbour's tuning is given on pages 181-183 of
"Tuning and Temperament."

Barbour started with the fift D-A and added an increment to each fifth
around the circle in both directions. The increments are 1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +
6 + 5 +4 +3 +2 +1 = 36 parts (from 700 cents). D-A is 3 parts flatter
than 700; B-F# and F-C will have 700 cents and Ab-Eb will be 3 parts
sharper than equal. Barbour recommends the part be 1 cent.

Barbour's tuning is tempered to a greater extent than Erlich's as his
flattest fifth (D-A) has 697 cents and his sharpest, (Ab-Eb, has 703.
The best thirds (C-E, G-B) have 392 cents and the worst ( Gb-Bb, Db-F)
408. A part of 1.75 cents makes the best thirds just, but the worst
about 414 cents.

Barbour doesn't describe the fifths and thirds of his tuning in as much
detail as Paul did (and I don't have time today to do so myself, alas),
but the chromatic octave is 0 92 197 297 392 500 591 699 794 894 999
1091 and 1200 cents.

My recollection is that this subject was discussed a couple of years ago
on the list.( Ed?)

Johnny: Congratulations on your trip to Russia! The Russians did a lot
of microtonality after the revolution before Stalin, Zhdanov, etc. put a
stop to it, but the scores and books are virtually unknown and
unobtainable in the US,
even in Russian. Do you think your contacts could locate some of these?
"Russian Theoretical Though in Music," by Gordon Daniel McQuere, UMI
Research Press, 1983, gives some tantalizing clues about what must have
been a very exciting period of exploration.

BTW, Nicholas Meeus has an post on musical phonemes on MTO-talk today.

--John

John writes: inre Barbour and his temperaments:
>
>My recollection is that this subject was discussed a couple of years ago
>on the list.( Ed?)

I am not familiar with Barbour's tuning directly, but have been in
correspondence with Owen Jorgensen lately.
Barbour made a well known statement in regards to the unequal tunings that
his research had turned up. He said, "That would just sound like an out of
tune piano!" I have had this thrown at me on numerous occasions, always by
the ET-only advocates, so I wrote to Jorgensen and asked if this was an
informed opinion, or just theoretical conjecture.
Owen tells me that Barbour was a product of his time, and regarded ET as
the final realized ideal, however, he had no experience listening to a modern
piano tuned in Well Temperament until Jorgensen's recital and lecture in
1967, three years before his death. Upon hearing the program, he
congratulated Owen on how good it all sounded and encouraged him to continue.

I have not had a chance to investigate the Barbour temperaments, but hope
to shortly.
Regards,
Ed Foote