Advice on baroque tuning

Hullo,

I'm trying to create a MIDI rendition of the Water Music (the first
suite, anyway), and so far it's been sounding very nice in meantone
tuning (as given at http://home.earthlink.net/~kgann/histune.html )...
However, Piece No. 7 (a Minuet) has a trio in F minor with even a bit
of it in B flat minor... needless to say, it sounds horrid. I tried
"transposing" the temperament so it was centered on F or A flat
instead of C, but the result is not quite satisfactory. So can anyone
recommend a temperament that might work better for such a piece?

Also, can anyone tell me how to correctly calculate the checksum for a
Roland SysEx message? My XV-2020 flashes the "checksum error" message
and then executes the command anyhow, but I'd like this to work on
GS-compatible synths that are a bit pickier as well.

Regards,
Michael

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Michael Goetze" <mgoetze5@y...> wrote:
> Hullo,
>
> I'm trying to create a MIDI rendition of the Water Music (the first
> suite, anyway), and so far it's been sounding very nice in meantone
> tuning (as given at http://home.earthlink.net/~kgann/histune.html )...
> However, Piece No. 7 (a Minuet) has a trio in F minor with even a bit
> of it in B flat minor... needless to say, it sounds horrid. I tried
> "transposing" the temperament so it was centered on F or A flat
> instead of C, but the result is not quite satisfactory. So can anyone
> recommend a temperament that might work better for such a piece?
>
> Also, can anyone tell me how to correctly calculate the checksum for a
> Roland SysEx message? My XV-2020 flashes the "checksum error" message
> and then executes the command anyhow, but I'd like this to work on
> GS-compatible synths that are a bit pickier as well.
>
> Regards,
> Michael

Michael,

Handel works well with a variety of Baroue temperaments. I think 1/4 comma
meantone only works and sounds wel for Handel in isolated passages...

You might want to try out any of the following: Silbermann 1/6 comma,
Werckmeister, Kirnberger, Valotti-Young.

For a list of cents offset values from 12-et, check out:
http://www.millersrus.com/avery/

Hope this helps....please post your results to us so we can hear...sounds fun!

Best,
Aaron.

Hi Aaron,

> Handel works well with a variety of Baroue temperaments. I think 1/4
comma
> meantone only works and sounds wel for Handel in isolated passages...
>
> You might want to try out any of the following: Silbermann 1/6 comma,
> Werckmeister, Kirnberger, Valotti-Young.

Thanks for the suggestions!

> For a list of cents offset values from 12-et, check out:
> http://www.millersrus.com/avery/

Nice list, thanks!

> Hope this helps....please post your results to us so we can
hear...sounds fun!

I'm currently in the process of acquiring new hardware which should,
hopefully, allow me to make really nice recordings - I'll keep you
informed. :)

Regards,
Michael

>Also, can anyone tell me how to correctly calculate the checksum for a
>Roland SysEx message?

Add all the byte values starting with the part id until the last
one before the checksum. Then
Checksum := (128 - (Bytesum mod 128)) mod 128

Manuel

Hi Manuel,

Did you ever include the Handel Well-temperament I posted a few months ago?
It might be an interesting addition to SCALA. Johnny

Yes, it's in the scale archive: handel.scl
Best,

Manuel

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Michael Goetze" <mgoetze5@y...> wrote:
> Hullo,
>
> I'm trying to create a MIDI rendition of the Water Music (the first
> suite, anyway), and so far it's been sounding very nice in meantone
> tuning (as given at
http://home.earthlink.net/~kgann/histune.html )...
> However, Piece No. 7 (a Minuet) has a trio in F minor with even a
bit
> of it in B flat minor... needless to say, it sounds horrid. I tried
> "transposing" the temperament so it was centered on F or A flat
> instead of C, but the result is not quite satisfactory. So can
anyone
> recommend a temperament that might work better for such a piece?

you probably need up to 16 notes of meantone. you're only using 12,
right? handel reportedly has 16 on one of his organs, only 12 keys
but he could change the pitches of four of them between "flats"
and "sharps".

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Afmmjr@a... wrote:
> Hi Manuel,
>
> Did you ever include the Handel Well-temperament I posted a few
months ago?
> It might be an interesting addition to SCALA. Johnny

hopefully no one will be misled into thinking that there's evidence
that g. f. handel ever heard or specified this tuning -- jorgenson
makes it clear that there isn't.