Further Werckmeister

Below is a letter I received from Douglas Frank of the Douglas Frank Chorale.
They were the vocalists for the recent AFMM performances of the Werckmeister
Christmas Cantata and for the Johann Michael Bach "Ach Bleib...".
--------------------------------
Doug Frank: I was surfing the Internet and found this Douglas Gunn Ensemble,
"Ireland's Leading Period Instrument Ensemble."

http://www.melrosemusic.ie/dge.htm

I contacted Douglas Gunn about his experience with Werckmeister III in
Baroque practice (curious if he would have any experience along the
lines of Bach Cantatas in Werckmeister III). I've forwarded his reply
(below and attached).

Talk to you soon.

Regards!
-Doug

----------
From: "Douglas Gunn" <dgunn@iol.ie>
To: "Douglas Frank" <dfrank@dougfrank.com>
Subject: Re: DGE-Temperament
Date: Thu, May 1, 2003, 8:13 AM

Dear Douglas,

I was most interested to get your e-mail. We have been using Werkmeister
III
in the DGE for many years. I started experimenting with tunings other
than
equal temperament in 1969! At that stage I was using meantone tuning
and
some years later moved to Werkmeister III which is more suitable for
music
of the middle and late baroque. There is no doubt in my mind and ear,
that
these are superior tunings to Equal Temperament for the reason that most
of
the commonly occurring thirds are fully or very nearly fully in tune. As
you
may know Werkmeister III was only one of many "well tempered" tunings
and
there are several major books on the subject - none of which,
incidentally,
I possess!! I have one very small book by Herbert Anton Kellner
entitled
"The Tuning of my Harpsichord" published by Verlag das Musikinstrument,
Frankfurt am Main, Germany, which contains directions for tuning a few
historical temperaments (including Werkmeister III) and one which he
somewhat eccentrically claims to have been Bach's tuning which he has
"reconstituted".

I wrote an article about Equal Temperament and our change over to
meantone
tuning in 1969 for the small magazine of the Music Association of
Ireland. I
attach this as a MS Word document in the hope that you may find it of
some
interest.

There is quite a literature on the subject and different people have
differing views on which tuning is suitable for which music. There is an
interesting article in the current issue of the magazine "Harpsichord &
fortepiano" , published by Ruxbury Publications Ltd. For information
you
could e-mail Jeremy Burbidge at: jeremy@recordermail.demon.co.uk
The
article is by Claudio di Veroli (who is now based in Ireland) and is
about
"temperament ordinaire". Claudio di Veroli runs Bray Baroque and there
are
a couple of links to it and to him on my Links pages.

I hope all of this is of use and interest to you. I am interested in
your
choral work - it sounds wonderful. I began life (!) as a singer.
Choirboy in
St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin subsequently a counter-tenor in the
choir
there and then a Lay Vicar Choral at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin,
etc., etc. And I have conducted many choirs and choral ensembles. The
DGE is
more or less disbanded now as I have (mild) Parkinson's which has put
paid
to my playing but I am still composing a little more than formerly and I
have set up a publishing business, Melrose Music MM, for my own
compositions, editions and arrangements initially (including much choral
music) but eventually to include the work of others.

For the moment very best wishes.

Douglas.

Douglas Gunn,
Melrose Music MM
Early & Modern Music
Telephone:+353 21 464 6399
http://www.melrosemusic.ie