question regarding Max Meyer

A book cited frequently by Partch in _Genesis of
a Music_ is Max F. Meyer's _The Musician's Arithmetic_
(_University of Missouri Studies, v 2 # 1; 1929).

Meyer's little book is an admirably clear
exposition wherein he advocates the use of rational
proportions for the notation of music, then
'somewhat disappointingly' (says Partch) applies
his theories to a 'quarter-tone' keyboard instrument.

I have an important question regarding Meyer's work:
did he actually tune his piano to 24-tET, or
was his system simply using 24-tET as a basis
for the notation and keyboard, with the pitches
actually tuned in just-intonation?

I believe it was the latter, but don't have the book
handy at the moment.

A large appendix at the end of Meyer's book is
K. C. Hsiao's _Chinese Scale Theories_, an entertaining
account which clearly provided Partch with most of
the information about Chinese theory that he put into
the historical sketches which make up Part 4 of _Genesis_.

-monz

Joseph L. Monzo Philadelphia monz@juno.com
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html
|"...I had broken thru the lattice barrier..."|
| - Erv Wilson |
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>I have an important question regarding Meyer's work:
>did he actually tune his piano to 24-tET, or
>was his system simply using 24-tET as a basis
>for the notation and keyboard, with the pitches
>actually tuned in just-intonation?

>I believe it was the latter, but don't have the book
>handy at the moment.

It was the former.