Handel well-temperament

Hello All,

I have been reading Tuning by Owen Jorgensen and came across a
well-temperament for GF Handel. It is a fascinating story.

It was published after Handel's death (1759) and anticipates Jean-Jacques
Rousseau's well-temperament (1768), both of which are not in Barbour. It was
published in 1780 in London by Longman and Broderip, No. 26 Cheapside, Music
Sellers to the Royal Family, along with 12 Voluntaries and Fugues for the Organ or
Harpsichord. While there is some question as to whether it is authentically
Handelian, Jorgensen has immense respect for it and states it is the best
tuning of its time. "The ease of tuning is not the only indication that the Handel
temperament was composed by a master" (Jorgensen, p. 159).

There are six different sizes of fifths, the same number required by
Rousseau. "There was no purpose in having varying sizes of fifths other than to have
varying modulatory effects or key-color changes as in well temperament"
(Jorgensen, p. 159).

Most interesting, as it refers to past list discussions, is that this tuning
is tuned melodically: that is, one note followed the other as when singing.
"Whenever equal-beating techniques or equal-beating increments cannot be
applied to a temperament system without distorting the intended theory, this can be
taken as proof that the author was tempering melodically" (Jorgensen, p. 160).

"If Handel was not the author of these temperament rules, then it must have
been someone else who had an extraordinarily developed musical ear that was
capable of melodically hearing intervals altered in increments of a twenty-fifth
part of the diatonic comma [0.9 cent). Only the musicians of the 1780s that
were blessed with Handel's high degree of talent could have followed these
rules and produced the proper results" (Jorgensen, p. 160). And all along I have
said that one can, and does, tune melodically by 1 cent.

After some calculations, I constructed its chromatic scale:

C 0
C# 93
D 194
Eb 296
E 396
F 499
F# 591
G 697
G# 795
A 896
Bb 997
B 1094

best, Johnny Reinhard