Kirnberger

(Originally posted in March, 2010) By now we hopefully understand that the Pythagorean temperament is really a stack of pure perfect 5ths (Pythagorean 5ths) and can bring out melodic beauty, and the temperament based on the narrow 5ths, each tampered by a quarter of a syntonic comma (mean-tone 5ths), can bring out chordal beauty.  Then what about those so-called well-temperaments like Kirnberger, Werckmeister, Vallotti and Young?  What is the 1/6-comma mean-tone that we hear about lately?  How different is that from the Vallotti or the Young temperaments? Before we get to the discussion of 1/6-Pythagorean-comma systems vs. 1/6-comma mean-tone, let’s take a look at the 1/4-comma systems.  Among those well-temperaments, […]