THE COLOUR OF MUSIC IN MOZARTS TIME A Jo

THE COLOUR OF MUSIC IN MOZART'S TIME
A journey from Couperin to Chopin
by David Pinnegar, B.Sc., A.R.C.S.
Paper presented 11th September 2018 to

Friends of the London Mozart Players
AURAL PRESENTATION:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt-ttLY5ex8
Open with Couperin Kyrie from Mass for Convents.

Registered as “Grand Jeu” in Meantone
Followed by musical examples:

Examination of reconstruction of
Mozart Fantasias K594 and K608 for Mechanical Clock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi__A_stDto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARdtdgJxezQ
Accompanied by Alexandra Kremakova and Jong-Gyung Park

performing
Bach Well Tempered Clavier On Clavichord and Organ:
Prelude no.1 in C major
Prelude no. E flat minor
Prelude no. F sharp major
Prelude no. G sharp minor
Prelude no. A flat major
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4NX_n2j_kg
and on piano
Extract from Chopin 2nd Sonata Op. 35 Bb minor
Beethoven Prelude 2 Op. 39
Haydn Piano Sonata, Hob. XVI/34, L. 53, E minor
Mozart Piano Sonatas
Extracts No 2 K280 F major and F minor,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFKlNDddWlA (Pinnegar, 1802 Stodart)
No 12 K322 F major
Fantasia K475 C minor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh485E_NZeQ
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Open with Couperin Kyrie from Mass for Convents. Registered as “Grand Jeu” in Meantone
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SUMMARY
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In this paper we're going to be looking primarily at authenticity, the need for it, and the meanings of
which we're oblivious on account of the musical equivalent for instance expecting Google Translate to
give us a translation into English from German having set the translator to Chinese instead.
As musicians as well as non-musicians, we might be unaware that there are problems with the musical
scale, known for over 2000 years, but assumed settled by our the assumption of superiority of modern
knowledge and swept under the carpet accordingly. We're going to hear those problems here at first
hand.
There was a legend that music conveyed different emotions granted by the use of particular keys.
Einstein was not the first to notice Mozart's specialised use of keys, and likewise Beethoven, Schubert,
Chopin and Liszt were all careful in their choice of key to match different moods. We're going to
examine that legend and experience for ourselves how the 18th and 19th century solutions to the scale
problem gave rise to those experiences, only to be swept away in the 20th century.
We're then going to visit the infamous context of two of Mozart's more unusual compositions and find
how without having done so, without understanding of the context, the limitations of the original
instrument for which it was composed and its tuning, which we will find Mozart deliberately
exploited, modern performance however grand falls short and fails to convey the meanings intended
and celebrated in the time of Mozart.
We're then going to examine works by Bach, presenting them in a manner unthinkable for 150 years,
and how the purity of scales, today with pure thirds in Meantone, or perfect fifths in other systems,
leads to different playing and pedalling techniques through Beethoven to Chopin. We're going to
examine the Piano Sonatas by Haydn and Mozart in the tuning known to be used in the 18th century,
and find surprising revelations relevant capable of bringing rebirth of interest in both Music and
Religion in the 21st century, even their survival in the light of possible cultural collapse.
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Copyright David Pinnegar 2018

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CONTENTS
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1 Authenticity 3
2 The problem with the musical scale 4
3 The scale as keys to emotion 4
4 Context – A journey to an art installation 6
5 Chromatic and Colour – the Bach Assumption 9
6 The piano sonatas of Haydn and Mozart 10
7 Haydn Sonatas and tuning 12
8 Findings 13
9 Conclusions 14
Appendix I
Practical aspects of tuning the piano 15
Appendix II
Observations on piano
harmonics and temperaments 16
Appendix III
BIBLIOGRAPHY, LITERATURE REVIEW
history of temperament research 19
Mozart
Organ 39
Clavichord, harpsichord and piano 40
Faith, devotion, Freemasonry, and
expression of emotion in Mozart's music 41
After Mozart 47
Appendix IV Schubart's key characteristics 49
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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In presenting this subject it's with pleasure and gratitude that I'd like to thank friends and musicians Adolfo
Barabino who isn't here with us today, and performing for us here, Alexandra Kremakova, harpsichordist,
organist and pianist, and Jong-Gyung Park all with whom ideas have progressed and developed. Thanks also to
harpist David Watkins whose enthusiasm led to being invited to speak to the Friends of the Mozart Players,
which led to the further research and findings outlined here.
It was made possible by a number of people of long ago, harp restorer Wilfred Smith who taught me principles
of tuning, long suffering parents who allowed demolition of four walls and four ceilings to build an organ in their
house, discovering historic tuning as a result through BIOS, the Bristish Institute of Organ Studies; Croydon
based piano tuner Alex Godin who taught me piano tuning, and more recently Michael Gamble, formerly of
Glyndeboune, restoring and maintaining historic instruments at Hammerwood Park which illucidated tuning all
the more, and a performance of Chopin's Second Sonata by Rose Cholmondley some dozen years ago which
gave me the key to 19th century tuning with which I've experimented and explored over the past decade. Thanks
are due also to Phillipe Bardon, nephew of the late Organist Titulaire at St Maximin in France who tolerated my
bad playing and introduced me to the sounds of the Baroque and to Arthur Ord-Hume, restorer of 18 th century
Barrel Organs who in conjunction with Nigel Taylor, tuner of bells at the former Whitechapel Bell Foundry and of
harpsichords and pianos, gave me the final clue to hearing the music of Mozart's time perhaps as we shall hear
in the musical examples accompanying this paper nearer to that heard by audiences in the past 150 years.
Thanks are due also to the support of many friends and in particular and especially my wife.
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1
AUTHENTICITY
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In order to be a good historian we have to be a forensic detective – we have to go to the place, to the
time . . . the context . . . . and take witness statements. And the music itself is one of the witnesses.
But the witness statements of the music in our time have more usually been dubbed as by Hollywood
into a different language or at least the voices of the protagonists replaced as if of concealment of their
identity. An actor, as of temperament, has been employed to dub the voice and replace that which was
heard at the time as seen in the moving picture.
It was an age when rationality wanted to explore reason, the clockwork behind the Creator. Fascination
with the mechanical. . . . Clocks, automata and the mechanical duck (63). Descartes had suggested that
the human body could be considered as a machine and Jonathan Swift in his Mechanical Operation of
the Spirit had considered the relationship between man as a machine and therefore that a mechanical
counterfeit could be made of him. The mechanic Jacque de Vaucanson in 1738 made a mechanical
duck that could flap its wings, dabble its beak in water, ingest grains of corn and . . . digest them and
excrete the remains. A second similar machine imitated indigestion and flatulence. But it was fake.
The pooh excreted was not the result of meat and corn ingested and chemically digested, but was a
specially prepared concoction rather as today our tuning has turned the delights of music into what can
be misused as muzak, and as performances focus on the speed, the volume at speed and whether
accurate to the score, as a circus act, an entertainment rather than the communication of the deepest
emotion. In many ways as we shall hear, the past 150 years of music has delivered us a false duck.
The nature of past times was one of greater feeling of proximity to one's fate, circumstances over
which we had no control. Antibiotics weren't then the panacea which took us away from the steps
towards death which we today take for granted. Women died unpredictably in childbirth. Simple
infections removed our loved ones and our only hope was in prayer, faith and acceptance of our fate.
Our popular composers Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin wrote in a language which spoke to us in an
accent originally as strange to us as Greek or even Hieroglyphics. Through the lens of modern
interpretation that soundscape which was descriptive of our human condition has been sterilised, as
through antibiotics, by the vibrations of our music through the tuning of our modern experience.
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2
THE PROBLEM WITH THE MUSICAL SCALE
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Demonstration of problem of musical scale, which like our understanding of life, never quite fits.
Three perfect thirds on three electronic tunable oscillators. Start middle C = 256 to E, 320, E to G#
400, and G# up a perfect 3rd to 500 – less than 512. So the thirds don't make the octave, quite.
Nothing quite fits so we have to adjust the intervals. This problem has occupied mathematicians and
theorists for over 2000 years, since the days of Pythagoras himself.
Demonstrate French Horn harmonics, perfect intervals. F 341 A 426 C 533
Tune C on electronic oscillator. Move another oscillator from C to E. We can hear beats as the tones
diverge, which then turn into a note which becomes the difference in frequency between the note, and
is harmonious upon the two oscillators producing a pure interval, on the harmonic series. When we get
to the E we hear a C, exactly in tune, two octaves below. This is known to violinists as the Tartini tone.
Musicians in the 19th century resisted moves to Equal Temperament because they complained it was
harsh, as now we can hear it.
Measure the E with an instrument tuner application. In Kellner temperament, we hear and see on the
meter near exactly as played on the keyboard. Moving to the modern tuning, Equal Temperament as
now universally heard in concert halls and we have to raise the pitch of our E for it to measure “right”
and we hear it horribly out of tune, with the Tartini C having moved horribly nearer to C# and quite
discordant.
Note: - In live presentation the demonstration started using a pure sine wave at around 250Hz. It was
extremely difficult to tune the perfect thirds in that octave. Tuning of perfect thirds relies upon having
a harmonically rich tone so that the 4th harmonic of the upper note can be tuned to the 5th harmonic of
the lower note so a pure sine wave is unsuitable for this demonstration. Alternatively the third is tuned
as a result of the lower beat-note, the sub-harmonic or Tartini tone two octaves below and at around
63Hz this is too low to be perceived acurately. The demonstration has to start on around 500Hz.
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THE SCALE AS KEYS TO EMOTION
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In 1787 Christian Schubart wrote a list of the emotional effect that musical keys could be expected to
create in anyone listening to music composed and performed in that key.(30) There are many who claim
in modern times to be able to hear the differences between keys. I gave up music at the age of 12
because I thought I must be a bad musician, because I couldn't hear any differences.
The ideas are coloured, pun intended, or rather clouded by confusion with the meaning of Colour as
applied to music. This is not a colour that you can see, although for many with “sinesthesia” musical
tones do induce concepts of visible colour, but instead reference to a spectrum of vibrations, just as
you see a spectrum of colours in a rainbow in the sky. It was Isaac Newton himself who identified the
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octave and its steps of tones with the near octave of the vibrations of visible light between red and
violet, or more correctly from infra-red to ultra-violet. Thus, the Chromatic scale is nothing to do with
merely the going up the scale in half-steps. It's about the emotions and the vibrations of the music as
we perceive it.
Whilst perhaps in knowledge of our first steps at the keyboard we might all agree C Major to be
completely pure. We'll agree with Schubart that its character is: innocence, simplicity, naïvety,
children's talk. Going to the minor, C Minor we can persuade ourselves of a “declaration of love and
at the same time the lament of unhappy love. All languishing, longing, sighing of the love-sick soul...
But then we start to see the key explanations become more exotic -
D Major
The key of triumph, of Hallejuahs, of war-cries, of victory-rejoicing. Thus, the inviting symphonies,
the marches, holiday songs and heaven-rejoicing choruses are set in this key.
Well perhaps.
Then Eb Major
The key of love, of devotion, of intimate conversation with God.
But is it really different from D Major? After all, we can shift the keyboard of a transposing
harpsichord and play D Major up a note. Does it really sound different?
Perhaps what follows might sound like a reading of a psychic -

D# Minor
“Feelings of the anxiety of the soul's deepest distress, of brooding despair, of blackest depression, of
the most gloomy condition of the soul. Every fear, every hesitation of the shuddering heart, breathes
out of horrible D# minor. If ghosts could speak, their speech would approximate this key.”
Have we really ever head such a thing? Reverting to F Major Complaisance & Calm. Yes of course so
we'll read on. But what comes next sounds more like an Astrological chart - F Minor - “Deep
depression, funereal lament, groans of misery and longing for the grave”
Certainly by the time we get to Ab Major, the text looks increasingly like a Tarot card reading - “Key
of the grave. Death, grave, putrefaction, judgment, eternity lie in its radius.”
Upon reaching B Major however strongly we'd like to believe “Strongly coloured, announcing wild
passions, composed from the most glaring colours. Anger, rage, jealousy, fury, despair and every
burden of the heart lies in its sphere”
Rationality demands pigeon-holing Schubart into the realm of a highly stretched imagination.
It's the incomprehensibility of such descriptions that cause many untrained in music to dismiss
classical music to the realm of the elite, that you have to be educated to hear it, for it to mean anything,
and for it to be dismissed merely in the realm of hi-brow.
However what we're able to hear, when we restore the colour to the music of the tuning of instruments
as used in Mozart's time, brings emotion that can be heard by all.
It's time to take the witness statement of the music itself, and see what we might be able to hear it say.
First, we're going to take a journey in a time machine, to a different time and place.
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CONTEXT – A JOURNEY TO AN ART INSTALLATION
“History is a foreign country”
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For our first example I want to take you to a contemporary modern art installation, a gallery filled with
plaster casts and waxworks. Our host in Vienna is the Count Joseph Deym von Střitetž but ever since
he killed an adversary in a duel he's returned to the city as Joseph Muller. Central to the exhibition is
an elaborate temple surmounted by a clock(63). Its pendulum is luminous and swings hypnotically.
Before us within we see a glass coffin in which we see the Hero of the Battle of Belgrade, Field
Marshal Laudon laid out in state. We're invited to reflect upon his derring-do, his life, joy and tragic
curtailment of his sudden demise, to stand to attention and honour befitting this marching man, and
morn as with the kneeling figure of a Turkish lady at his feet.
The scene's the very description of “Deep depression, funereal lament, groans of misery and longing
for the grave”.
Upon the hour the clock plays some music. Regularly without stopping. Life marches on to that
inevitability of . . . death which comes to us all. Time is all,
And the music that accompanies it is composed by the Master. Mozart's Fantasia for Organ – no –
Mechanical Clock . . . . in guess which key? If we ask Schubart which key Mozart should have used
he'd refer us straight to F minor. Let's hear it as we normally experience the opening of K608 on a
large organ in a large acoustic in modern tuning.
Demonstration . . . . Full registration 16ft to Mixtures in Equal Temperament
It's worth listening to standard performances of both K608

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5M9KsJ3qRM and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-DCjOBpa9E
and K594
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4tQheMSiyA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76EL79G13n8
and seeing if you can picture the scene in Count Deym's art installation. For me they don't work.
With various performers over the past decade I've been working on piano tuning and exploring the sort
of tuning that classical composers expected to be used, of which Bach would have approved and
which would work on modern pianos.
This isn't the sort of tuning that we're hearing here for the purposes of demonstration in this paper.
I'd never dreamt of taking the direction in tuning that I've been led to in the preparation of this
presentation and which formerly I regarded as extreme.
The acquisition for Hammerwood Park of an 18th century barrel organ from the Colt Collection
provided the clue. I knew that it would contain information about tuning, and it did, by an indirect
route.
I'd heard that Mozart expected a temperament known as Mean Tone to have been used, but always
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considered it too strong, too limiting for the tuning of a piano. We'll address this later.
An expert on Barrel Organs, Arthur Ord-Hume had restored the Hammerwood Park barrel organ for
Colt in the 1970s. In his book about repair of such 18th century instruments(25) he wrote with the
modern tuning bias of the 20th century for which he can be forgiven:
“the system of unequal temperament was followed until at least the middle of the 19th century and this
explains why it is difficult to tune some early instruments to the scale as we know it today. Many of the
tonal imperfections which our educated ears wince at today were indeed acceptable and intentional at
the time the organ was first made”
So here was a mechanical organ of 1790, the year Mozart composed for the mechanical organ for
Deym, and we're told that its tuning . . . should make us wince.
So let's try it. The opening of K594. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebKP9MiGyiI It's not too
soon to mention Freemasonry here.1 It opens with, on the one hand, the march of the Major General in
the army, the march of time, but not in two time, nor four, but in three. The symbol of perfection, of
Divinity, of Trinity, the three pillars that held up the great temple. The notes of the first bar are a minor
triad, a minor third, a major third, an inverted major third, and a minor third.
Purity of thirds is a feature of meantone. Stacked thirds were a symbol to him of Harmony (Thesis
Masonic Symbolism, the Ascent to Master Mason and Mozart . . . Saunders (86), 2012 p10-11). Three
steps were required in the Lodge “to reach the Orient where the Grand Master is seated”
The fourth bar repeating the three steps of the former three feels like reaching above and beyond that
of before. The five bars of these steps of three may be as of the “five points of fellowship”.
The story of the origin of the rite of the 3rd Degree of Freemasonry is described by Saunders(86). Hiram
Abiff has been sent by King Hiram to help build Soloman's temple. Three ruffians demand to know
secrets from him, pushed him about and upon refusing to give over the secrets the third ruffian kills
him. That fourth bar of K594 sounds to me of rebellious spirit, and imagination can give over to any of
the images above upon surveying the sight of the tomb before us.
A central tenet of Freemasonry is moving from the idea of darkness into light.(86) From the darkness of
the first three bars we move to light in the seventh, seven being an important number.
All or any of these contemplations may have been intended and the genius of Mozart is in creation of
such concurrent narrative.
Our thoughts turn again from darkness to light in the transformation from F minor to the major and as
we peruse the grave before us, the music takes us through all permutations of upstanding bravery,
truncated life, the soul reaching to heaven, and mourning.
We don't need a big organ to achieve the effect. Just two ranks of pipes small enough to fit into a clock
and a tuning to make us wince!
Let's hear it
18th century freemasonry was a widespread source for many of the freedoms and social reforms we take for granted
today and it's built invisibly into our language. See footnote 4 p.11.
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- - - - - - - - - - arrangement for upper parts set on 8ft Stopped Diapason, and lower line set on 8ft
Dulzian as Bassoon – (Bass Son - Sound)
and if you'd like to hear this again, just look up on Youtube
“Mozart Mechanical Clock, Meantone K594.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebKP9MiGyiI
Was this a piece of Masonic music? We're going to look at some surprising examples later from both
Haydn and Mozart.
Putting these in the context of the tuning, were we to hear the Fantasia K608 on a big organ, not in
modern tuning, Equal Temperament, but in the tuning known to be used in Mozart's time let's hear it . .
.
- - - - - - - - - (registered on full organ from 16ft to Mixtures in Meantone tuning)
it sounds awful. Truly awful.
So in ignorance, we blame the tuning. We say how terrible Meantone temperament is . . . but it's only
through our misunderstanding.
When we restore this piece to its context of the two ranks of pipes of the clock which we can in the
opening bars here
- - - - - - - - - - - (Youtube “Mozart Mechanical Clock, Meantone K608.”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARdtdgJxezQ
the Meantone temperament reins supreme. It expresses the mood of the music and does all, and more,
much more in the two ranks of pipes in the conveyance of emotion presented by the grave before our
eyes than the effects achievable by the big organ wrongly tuned.
Use of Meantone can carry all of the emotion described by Schubart but only provided we register and
play with the greatest of sensitivity, perhaps with Schubart's key descriptions being the key to the
treatment of the keys, pun intended.
As musicians we have been bamboozled for too long and forgotten the meanings of what we do with a
key, to unlock, to access a different place, a different space, and the meaning of Chromatic – the real
meaning concerning matters of Colour.
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5
CHROMATIC AND COLOUR
THE BACH ASSUMPTION
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Percy Scholes in 1948 writing his two volumes on “The Great Dr Burney”(9) commented:
“It looks as though, in asking the simple question, “How did Wesley play Bach's 48 on
Burney's piano? [tuned to meantone temperament]” one is challenging the acousticians and
scientific musical historians to a little fresh consideration of a subject on which they have so
far pronounced rather too dogmatically, and without sufficiently checking their statements by
an examination of the actual musical repertory of the eighteenth century.
So I'm introducing Alexandra Kremakova to help us with some Bach and challenging the assumptions
of music in our time. She's going to play for us very deliberately examples of theoretically the wrong
stuff in the wrong keys – keys in which conventional wisdom would tell us that Bach's Well Tempered
Klavier simply could not be played.
She'll set the scene in C major and then progress, and perhaps you might take a view whether Bach's
composition took into account the delicacy of the keys in which he was writing, delicately played and
whether those keys could have been described by Schubart in terms which anyone could really hear for
themselves.(13) She'll move between Bach's original conceived instrument, the Clavichord, to organ
specifically registered for the mood conceived by Bach's choice of key.
Prelude no.1 in C major

Schubart: Completely Pure. Its character is: innocence, simplicity, naïvety, children's talk.
Note for performance: On organ this can be registered with a bright registration but in the spirit of
purity and simplicity, more appropriate for a plain Open Diapason.
Prelude no. E flat minor

Schubart: Feelings of the anxiety of the soul's deepest distress, of brooding despair, of blackest depresssion, of the
most gloomy condition of the soul. Every fear, every hesitation of the shuddering heart, breathes out of horrible D#
minor. If ghosts could speak, their speech would approximate this key.
Prelude no. F sharp major

Schubart: Triumph over difficulty, free sigh of relief utered when hurdles are surmounted; echo of a soul which has
fiercely struggled and finally conquered lies in all uses of this key.
Prelude no. G sharp minor

Schubart: Grumbler, heart squeezed until it suffocates; wailing lament, difficult struggle; in a word, the color of this
key is everything struggling with difficulty.
(Note – it has a similar figure to the 'cross' trope in Johannes Passion. It has augmented fourth and
chromaticism in common with it, although not exact, creating a similar pattern.)
Prelude no. A flat major

Schubart: Key of the grave. Death, grave, putrefaction, judgment, eternity lie in its radius.
In the “bad” keys that follow the mood of the key is not bright, so it's relevant to chose a
harmonically suppressed tone in the spirit of the key. In Meantone, the Stopped Diapason displays odd
harmonics with suppression of the even harmonics so the 5th harmonic adds to the sweetness of the
thirds, the out of tune thirds becoming irrelevant and overpowered by what harmonics do coincide. A
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tuning system such as Kirnberger with perfect fifths may allow a subtle twelfth to be introduced.
And finally, we're going to present to you in the spirit of Facade, Beethoven's Prelude no. 2 of Opus 39
in all the major keys accompanied by Schubart's descriptions.
Postscript – Of Bach's 48 Book 2, the prelude in D major starts triumphant, according with
Schubart's key descriptions, with a trumpet fanfare. Whilst the transposition of some of the 48 has
been held as evidence for Equal Temperament, this specific accordance indicates that more research
is appropriate in the direction of demonstrating the individual characters of the keys.
Moving on from Beethoven, even some Chopin is playable in Meantone. It's not only playable,
whether in Meantone or such a tuning as Kirnberger with 7 perfect fifths rather than 8 perfect thirds,
but it allows a very different use of the sustaining pedal, made possible by the new purity of the scale
being tuned increasingly to harmonics of the lower strings, and impossible conventionally on concert
hall pianos with the blur caused by the ubiquitous modern tuning.
Of course with an electronic piano, the Yamaha Clavinova here carrying both Meantone and
Kirnberger tunings, the effect isn't going to be quite as wonderful as experienced with a proper
Steinway tuned to unequal temperament . . . but it's clearly audible.
In the spirit of continuing to express that unsterilised world before the salvation of antibiotics, she's
going to leave you in the spirit of
A quaint creature, often dressed in the garment of night. It is somewhat surly and very seldom takes on a
pleasant countenance. Mocking God and the world; discontented with itself and with everything;
preparation for suicide sounds in this key.
with the third movement of Chopin's 2nd Sonata, in Bb minor, the Funeral March.
As a footnote to what we hear demonstrated, pedalling indications in Beethoven and Chopin scores
indicate different pedalling and playing techniques used, currently exploited by Adolfo Barabino and
his pupils. and the split pedal of Beethoven model Broadwoods c.1817-20 support such sound
manipulation. The suppression of the 5th partial or harmonic in pre 1870s pianos, and particularly
Broadwoods and the English School instruments both remove clash with out of tune 3rds, whilst
allowing in tune thirds to resonate, and strengthen resonance in temperaments using perfect 5ths.
Even if a tuning slightly more mild or universal had started to purvey the 19th century, such as
Kirnberger or Earl Stanhope's formula, we've heard the exploitation of Meantone here. The piece by
Couperin with which I started the presentation exemplifies the understanding of expressing sweetness
interrupted by crisis points(55), symbolic of the pain of Christ, whilst the Moravian Christian Ignatius
Latrobe wrote songs2 where the music in an unequal temperament identifies points of crisis and
sorrow. The Moravians believed that one could not be a good Christian without having sought and
found the wounds in Christ's side (Qui La Cerca La Troba) and felt the pain experienced within, and
from the womb of which one would be reborn.3
The tuning system was used by many musicians as the tuning of choice in the 18th century, pervading
organs and certainly pianos in England, Meantone without doubt was the expression of music from the
Catholicism of Couperin, to the expression of rebirth and resurrection in Mozart's time, a common
lingua whether of Freemasonry, Catholic or Moravian understanding.
2 “SIX AIRS” The words on serious subjects by Wm. Cowper Esqr, Mrs H More &c SET to MUSIC & INSCRIBED TO
Miss Rose by C I Latrobe – LONDON Printed for R Birchall at his Musical Library 133 New Bond Street
3 Understanding Zinzendorf's Blood and Wounds Theology - Craig D. Atwood Journal of Moravian History No. 1 (Fall
2006), pp. 31-47 Pennsylvania State University
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6
THE PIANO SONATAS OF HAYDN AND MOZART
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In looking at the Piano Sonatas of Mozart through the lens of Meantone, I've found some passages
which are startling.
When we do the experiment and audition the music in the original tuning, and even more-so on an
original fortepiano unavailable to us here (but available and accessible at Hammerwood Park), Mozart
has audibly used tuning specifically and deliberately throughout his sonatas
1. to imitate the sound of crying
2. to express a broken heart followed by recovery and then anger
3. as a sense of humour, as a banana skin to slip upon in a bar or two only to recover balance as if
nothing had happened
4. in entering a dark tunnel to re-emerge into the light.
His early six sonatas are surprising as they pre-date Mozart's entry into Freemasonry in 1784 by
around ten years, but according to Saunders' thesis(86), p.4 he was surrounded by, acquainted with and
writing for masons from a young age. The second sonata K280 is as if having been buried in the grave,
with all associated mourning, in the second slow movement, thereupon to have risen from the dead in
the third movement. This is potentially within the realms as of the organ fantasia K296 an expression
of the rite of the 3rd Degree, being born again, lost in darkness, to be risen anew4 into illumination of
the understanding inherent to a Master Mason(82) (83) (86).
I'd like to introduce you to Jong-Gyung who'll play some extracts in illustration.
-- - - - - - Mozart K280 extracts – end of 1st movement, 2nd, beginning of 3rd
Rather than play the whole of this Sonata, we're going to look sideways at Haydn doing something
intersting in his Sonata Hob. XVI/34, L. 53 in E minor. He composed this in 1784, the year he applied
for membership of the Lodge “True Concord”. The sonata vacillates between the darkness of the
minor and the enlightenment and illumination of G major, G being a pointer to the Great Architect the
focus of Freemasonry.
According to Schubart E minor: Naïve, womanly innocent declaration of love, lament without
grumbling; sighs accompanied by few tears; this key speaks of the imminent hope of resolving in the
pure happiness of C major
Another coloured sonata is Mozart Sonata 12 within which we'll hear other examples entering dark
tunnels, to emerge into light.
- - - - - - - - Mozart Sonata 12 K322 - 1st and last pages 1st movement, beginning of Adagio 2nd,
beginning and end of 3rd movement ending in F minor
As a matter of reference, Sonata 13 exemplifies Mozart's sense of humour with banana-skin passages
such as around bar 97 or so of the last movement whilst Sonata 14 evokes crying in the passage from
bar 9. Sonata 17 enters a wonderful darkness around bar 80 to emerge into daylight some 10 bars later.
Sonata 14, K457 was published together with his Fantasia K475 (76) (78) (87) and it's this composed in the
year of Mozart's entry into Freemasonry with which Jong Gyung closes this presentation.
4The ceremony is built into our use of the word upright. “Up” at a “right”-angle is applied to a person who has been in the
grave and understands death, pulled “up right” again standing alive(82) , in contrast to dead, so born again, in mind.
12
------------------------
7
HAYDN SONATAS AND TUNING
------------------------
The facility of availability of MIDI files for much of the classical repertoire on websites such as
www.kunstderfuge.com/haydn.htm has made research into temperament much easier to our generation
than before, even to scholars of just 20 years ago. Much gratitude is owed to the passionate individuals
who have compiled these resources.
Likewise the facility offered by Yamaha with their MIDI controlled Clavinova instruments of which
capability is provided to switch from Equal to Meantone and Kirnberger temperaments is both
enlightened and a tool unavailable to previous generations of researchers. The combination is an
incomparably powerful research resource.
Many of the Midi files are significantly expressive and of high musical quality and whilst unable to
match the sensitivity of playing necessarily to the temperament, taking that into account one is able to
gain a useful impression of the music.
Sonata 23 in B major is hideous in Meantone. This suggests that Haydn may have favoured
Kirnberger's temperament using 7 perfect 5ths. Easy to tune like Kellner, it offers equal facility to play
in all keys. There is a direct line of heritage from Bach to Kirnberger, CPE Bach and then to Haydn.
From Haydn we have a direct link to England, London, the Latrobe family (80) and thus possibly the
introduction of Kirnberger temperament to displace Meantone.
We're also aware of temperament instructions from Handel, the effect of which interpreted by Alastair
Laurence of Broadwood pianos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3REzLHO56VE is not unlike
Kellner in its extent of colouration and effect.
Whilst we've demonstrated that Bach's Well Tempered Clavier can be played in Meantone with
sufficient delicacy either the Kirnberger or Handel temperaments could answer Percy Scholes
question(9) about how the 48 could have been played on Dr Burney's piano.
Whilst Haydn Sonata 23 is the exception in Meantone, whether in Meantone or Kirnberger the
following sonatas demonstrate strong colour/tuning effects:
10, 12, 26 2nd movement, 29 2nd movement, 31 (first and last movements but not the 2nd), 33 2nd
movement, 35 1st movement, 37 1st and last movements, 38 2nd movement, 40 2nd movement, 43, 47 2nd
and 3rd movements, 49 3rd movement, 50 2nd movement, 51 1st movement, 53 1st movement, 55 2nd
movement, 57 2nd movement, 59 1st movement, 62 1st & 2nd movements.
These need further research to examine effect and intention.
It is indisputable however that Haydn's Variations in F Minor were inspired by the death of Maria
Anna von Genzinger and therefore have to be heard within the F Minor soundscape of a strong
unequal temperament whether Meantone, Werkmeister or Kirnberger, and cannot be appreciated in
Equal Temperament.
13
------------------------
8
FINDINGS
------------------------
1. Restoration of the Mozart Fantasias for Mechanical clock to the soundscape of Meantone
Tuning brings forward Mozart's genius of composition for the context and setting in
which the music was to be heard, and conveys in simplicity all emotions to
perfection.
2. Bach's 48 Preludes and Fugues for Well Tempered Clavier can be played on a Meantone
instrument in which context played sensitively they convey the emotional landscape
documented by Schubart.5 They may well not have been written to exploit equal
temperament at all and perhaps not even a “Well Temperament” which has to date
been the focus of study. They may be a deliberate demonstration of the emotions
conveyed by different keys.
3. Dissonances were intended as part of the emotional content, part of the musical landscape
of suffering and pain in a devotional context. These were expressed well in
Meantone and contrast with the sweet harmony the temperament provides also.
Good circulating temperaments in which all keys are playable hint at least to sadness
as appropriate but equal temperament is unable to provide any such clues written
into the music.
4. Restoration of the Mozart sonatas to the Meantone reveals messages of bringing darkness
into light which are central to the core of Mozart's beliefs.
5. Haydn's Sonatas contain emotional content which appears to align with concepts of
Mozart but more research is needed in this direction. His music is sterilised in
modern performance in modern Equal Temperament, not understood and not taken
as seriously as it should.
6. Compatibility with the Baroque tuning puts Mozart firmly within the context of the
Baroque but the sound is reflected in Baudelaire's definition “Romanticism is precisely
situated neither in choice of subject, nor exact truth, but in the way of feeling.” The
experience of the tuning makes perfect sense of Schubart's contemporary description of
key experiences of 1787.
5 See bibliography (47) 1997 - SELECTED PIANO COMPOSITIONS OF BEETHOVEN AND SCHUBERT AND
THE EFFECT OF WELL TEMPERAMENT ON PERFORMANCE PRACTICE - Robyn M Rysavy
14
------------------------
9
CONCLUSIONS
------------------------
I hope that from what we've heard today it will have been audible to all, not just the cognoscenti of
music but the legendary man in the street, the Man on the Clapham Omnibus known to Law, that
- ubiquitous use of modern Equal Temperament tuning has served us badly(13), obscuring the
sound and the meaning of the classical music we've heard examples of, leading to wrong
interpretations and muddled ideas;
- When we restore tuning to methods used in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries the myth of
emotions being communicated by choice of keys becomes a tangible reality, and with
which we've lost touch;
- Having restored the tuning, and the emotional language available written into and encoded
within the music we hear communicated meaning of which we hadn't dreamt before;
- The loss of such tunings from the concert hall, and of which here we've heard and experienced
one, has lead to the deadening of music(13) and its perceived relevance as a language, just
as important in schools as the teaching of English Literature, and at least French if not
Latin or German in their relevance to the roots of our own flavour of communication;
- As a medium of empathetic communication, music is an important force for healing and in the
vanguard against an increasingly mechanically driven, even psychopathic, world.
- The persistent refusal to allow performers to break away from modern Equal Temperament
would be considered by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and their devout Moravian,
Masonic and Catholic friends alike to be as much a crime were a jobsworth to have
prevented Jesus from raising Lazarus from the Dead. The continued persistence(38) of
Equal Temperament on the concert platform, in broadcasts and recordings is a crime
against music and human understanding itself. (43)(47)(56)(59)(69)
- For the promotion of renewed understanding of music the classical composers require renewed
access to historical and harmonic resonance based tunings on Concert Hall instruments, whether
based on perfect thirds or perfect 5ths. Music requires the restoration of its harmonics of intrinsic
vibrations, the sound of its language in which it was written for it to properly convey meaning,
emotion, and to live again, reborn to flourish.
It is to the considerable credit to the Friends of the London Mozart Players that I have been invited
therefore to deliver this paper to them.
15
--------------------------
APPENDIX 1
Practical aspects of tuning the piano
--------------------------
These notes may be of help to those wishing to explore the temperaments on instruments within their
control. Piano scales are often stretched so as to take account of inharmonicity of strings. Stretching
also adds an artificial brightness to the sound particularly in the treble. However, I have found often
that pianos tuned by others take the top octave to a quarter of a tone sharper, and more on occasion,
than a pure tuning resonating with the octave below. Whilst tuning some instruments with the open
strings in the upper octaves without dampers one can hear an audible resonance when taking the pitch
of the stretched notes down as they then coincide with the harmonics of the lower octave.
Best results occur when the chosen temperament is tuned pure, from Tenor C to Middle C, to Treble C
and the octave above that. Beyond that in the treble, stretching can be employed as a is appropriate.
Below Tenor C strings are best tuned to the octave and fifth harmonics which fall within the Middle C
region, the fifths particularly in temperaments using perfect fifths where the notes give the perfect
fifth, and for Meantone the “tierce” harmonic, fifth partial, two octaves and a third if present in the
spectrum, is tuned perfect to the third in the Middle C region. This ensures maximum harmonic
resonance.
The tricord strings should be tuned with all three strings exactly pure with no beats between them.
This leads to greater stillness, clarity, and a faster decay rate leading to ability to use the sustaining
pedal with much greater freedom, as exemplified in the acoustics of the harp itself or the Clavecin
Royal of the 18th century totally without dampers.
Personally I have found Kellner's temperament to work especially well for all repertoire, although the
effect is subtle, and in fact there's increasing academic research which undermines much of the
derision levelled at Dr Kellner in the 1980s. Kirnberger III also using 7 perfect fifths can work well,
especially where octaves aren't stretched. Octave stretching makes the tierce, two octaves and third,
from Tenor Db to Treble F objectionable, but without stretching harshness is avoided.
16
--------------------------
APPENDIX II
Observations on piano harmonics and temperaments
--------------------------
In tuning pianos from 1983 it was only upon engaging with the issue of unequal temperaments around
10 years ago that sharpened my ears to the effect of harmonics in piano tone and understanding how
they functioned with respect to temperament.
The octave between Tenor C and Middle C has importance for harmonics in the Treble C octave, two
octaves higher, whilst the octave below Tenor C has importance for the Middle C octave.
The concert instrument at Hammerwood Park which I've tuned for three decades is an 1885 Bechstein
which brought intimate familiarity with harmonics creating a singing tone. It is typical of post 1880
instruments in presenting a reasonably even set of harmonics including the Tierce, the 5th partial, two
octaves and a 3rd above the fundamental note. In Equal Temperament the tuning presents a sharpened
3rd and as we progress from Tenor C upwards, the difference between the harmonic and the scale
tuned note is such that beats are too fast to count, but the note presents a shimmering of sound. Put
together, the sound glistens, and then our natural reaction is to be impressed, now dazzled, by how
good the piano is and we identify the sound, the piano, with the Brand, whether Steinway, Bechstien,
Bluthner, Yamaha, Kawaii, Grotian Steinweg or Bosendorfer for instance. Our focus now is distracted
by the brand instrument, how good the instrument is, rather than the music and the instrument's ability
to express the music.
Hammerwood Park was given an Emerich Betsy grand of 18546, since restrung and this set me on the
path to wider tuning interest and observation.
I examined all of the pianos for sale at the views of both the Finchcocks historic collection sale (2016)
and the Colt Collection (2018) many of which were exported to China and Korea and now out of reach
to researchers. Of the instruments from both collections a Stodart grand of 1802, Beethoven style
Broadwood of 18197 and the Hallé Broadwood of 1859 have come to Hammerwood.
All the pre 1860 pianos examined demonstrate prominence of the 3rd partial, in the Tenor C and lower
octave and so they work really well with perfect 5th based temperaments. The 5th partial is significantly
absent or suppressed, so removing strong clashing with wide thirds, and offering no dazzle
shimmering effect of the instruments of the 1880s onwards.
For this reason I attribute the changeover date for the exploitation of equal temperament and the loss
of key colour to the period of the 1860s to 1880s.
This puts a necessity on returning our instruments in concert halls to unequal temperament for the vast
bulk of the classical repertoire and my experience of experiments with a wide variety of musicians
over a decade is that Kellner temperament is strong enough to be aurally discernable but not so strong
as to be damaging in any way to music composed and intended fully without regard to key colour from
the 1880s onwards. Instrumentalists adapt to Kellner well and in particular Jazz musicians like the
nuances that changing key brings.
My experiments in temperament on modern instruments have shown them to be as suitable for tuning
to a “colour temperament” as historic ones, and often an improvement of tone and musicality is
6 https://jungleboffin.com/mp4/jill-crossland-unequal-tempered-fortepiano/mozart-twinkle-jill-crossland.mp3
7 Thanks to the generosity and help of Nigel Scaife of www.thepianoshopkent.co.uk
17
discerned.8
Possibly Kirnberger without inharmonicity stretching of octaves might even be possible for a general
use, although more experiments are required.
The effect of the perfect interval based scales, whether based on 3rds or on 5ths is that harmonics are
reinforced.
Modern equal temperament tuning practice is to detune very slightly the trichords, the three strings
that make up each note. This lengthens the resonance time of the instrument, but adds to the shimmer
effect and constantly moving sound. It adds to the total confusion and blurring when the sustaining
pedal is used.
The perfect interval based scales require the trichords to be tuned pure, exact, achieving laser-like
stillness and clarity. The contrast exploited by unequal temperament is in between stillness and
moving, clean and dirty, solid and liquid, certain and uncertain, dimensions inaccessible to an equal
temperament shimmer.
It's specifically these dimensions of contrasts which Classical composers used to widen the emotional
language of their music beyond that comprehended through modern concert hall performances heard
in the 20th century to the present time. The musical language is now as reduced to the equivalent of
Orwellian “NEWSPEAK” in the limitation of the moods and ideas capable of being conveyed. The
stillness achieved in a perfect tuning or “Good Temperament” in the designated good keys is crucial to
the music.
Exact tuning reduces the resonating time, but increases the consonance and intensity of resonance.(13)
Because the notes of the scale either correspond exactly with harmonics of the lower strings, or they
are sufficiently away not to resonate at all, the effect of the sustaining pedal is clean, can be used to
extend resonance and can be used much more liberally. This accords with the pedalling research of
Adolfo Barabino from original scores illustrating Beethoven and Chopin's intentions of sustaining
pedal held down for extended periods(47), and of theoretical analysis. (53) (70)
Effectively the resonating temperaments provided a “comb filter” limiting harmonic resonance
without application of dampers only to notes of the scale as an integer number series. This contrasts
with the even scale and string harmonics off-tune to the scale, causing Equal Temperament to cover a
much wider range of off-tuned frequencies with which to semi-resonate beating shimmeringly. In
contrast to the discrete frequency set of unequal temperaments offering distinct sets of modes of
resonance in each different key, the modern tuned instrument provides an even continuum of shimmer
modes which will be excited by any played pitch. Unequal temperaments with many perfect intervals
will favour resonance of those related notes whilst the further away from the pure intervals either
won't resonate at all, or are overcome by the intervals resonating perfectly.
An example of the reduction of clashing of undamped strings is in the harp. Whatever temperament is
used for tuning the instrument reduces the number of strings to 7 to the octave rather than the full 12
notes of the scale. In the modern fashion of piano tuning with strings slightly tuned away from laser
sharpness, 36 strings vibrate in the octave. Available modes of sympathetic resonance are reduced at
first glance by 7/36 and the instrument is played without dampers at all without detriment to the
music.
8 Brands include Bechstein, Broadwood, Chickering, Grotien Steinweg, Steinway, Steinway Boston, Rogers and Yamaha
18
Exploration of this phenomenon might open up greater understanding of the 18th century popularity of
the Clavecin Royale and contemporary tangent pianos and research in this direction would be helpful,
although hampered by the inaccessibility of extant instruments.
In organs where the full organ tone is built up of harmonic stops, Nazard (12th), Tierce (17th), Larigot
(19th) the changeover to equal temperament caused the removal of those natural sounds, and the
dumbing of the timbre of the instrument resulted. Late Victorian organs tend towards boring
specifications with many 8ft pipes and possibly only one 4ft rank to tickle the ear. With the 20th
century debasement and abandonment of religion such organs are being scrapped by the score as they
offer no interest in the reuse of redundant churches housing them.
Variety of the equal tempered organ was obtained not by subtlety of timbre but by the development of
pseudo orchestral stops, particularly by Hope-Jones, and often of great power driven by extreme wind
pressures such as the Tuba stop typified by Arthur Harrison organs with the volume of a rank of fog-
horns. The instrument became a matter of entertainment with show-piece compositions and entered
the realm of the unit-orchestra in cinemas. As entertainment, it died out of fashion.
The 20th century reform of organ building restoring the tonal structure required organ builders to re-
explore the historic temperaments, and from where the Bb minor of Chopin's 2nd Sonata inspired my
investigations and findings as to the use of temperament in the piano music of Mozart and thereafter
through to Liszt .
The ultimate triumph of equal temperament in the scale and its harmonics was the Hammond organ
which synthesized organ tones with addition of harmonics – derived from the equal tempered scale.
For individual sounds it was remarkably convincing but for full organ, hopeless and nasty. The
instrument ended up providing jazz entertainment, a victim of fashion, and muzac for crematoria
where now replaced by other expressions of shallowness, it has firmly died a death.
Instruments using scales and harmonics which work together, in contrast are part of the natural order
of things, expressions of the eternal and as intended by composers who devoutly focused on the
eternal. The works of those composers have survived centuries after their deaths to continue to
fascinate audiences audiences of today.
The presentation of this paper to the Friends of the Mozart players aurally demonstrated why we need
to restore to our keyboards the tunings for which they were writing their expressions of eternity.
19
------------------------
APPENDIX III
BIBLIOGRAPHY, LITERATURE REVIEW AND HISTORY OF

TEMPERAMENT RESEARCH
------------------------
This list is neither exhaustive nor complete but its history demonstrates an increasing awareness of the
renewal opened up by exploration of “Colour” tuning systems beyond the vanilla of Equal
Temperament. The list carries its own narrative and many other researchers have confirmed my own
observations in a decade of unequal temperament piano tuning and promotion of the concert repertoire
using the 7 pure fifth system similar to Kirnberger as modified by Kellner. Likewise my recordings
and aural observations have confirmed aspects of the musical experience to which others have
independently drawn attention.
(1) 1874
Temperament; Or, the Division of the Octave [Part II]
R. H. M. Bosanquet
Proceedings of the Musical Association, 1st Sess. (1874 - 1875), pp. 112-158
Developing a “regular tuning” - continues from the heritage of a paper read to the Royal Society by
Ellis in 1864 “On the temperament of instruments with fixed tones”. Examines historical
temperaments from Pythagorean to Mersenne, Huygens, Smith, Woolhouse, Earl Stanhope, De
Morgan, Herschel, Poole, General Thomson and the work of Helmhotz, Tyndall and Meyer.
(2) 1886
Notes on Equal Temperament and the Character of Musical Keys
Charles R. Cross
Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 21 (May, 1885 - May, 1886), pp. 499-
503
Described experiments with reed organs and pianos tuned with exactitude to ET.
“I question very greatly if the impression which any of the instrumental music of Handel, Bach, or
Mozart produces upon us, when played at the highest recent concert pitch, a markedly different effect
from that which was produced when the low pitch at which those masters wrote was in vogue. Of
course, merely noticing a change in character, which we may attribute to change in key, when the pitch
is intentionally lowered a semitone, would prove nothing, as any ear keen enough to notice the change
would carry the recollection of the high pitch at which it had usually been heard. In view of the fact
that music of the most varied characteristics has been written in the same keys, it is hard to understand
how any such inherent character as is popularly imagined can attach to them. It seems much more
likely that the great success of some eminent composer in writing music of a particular kind in a
certain key has tended to stamp that character upon that key, in the minds of musicians ; and later
composers may even have been led to choose such a key from its imagined superiority for their
purposes ”
------
Note: This paper was written clearly at a time beyond the memory of hearing anything other than
Equal Temperament (ET). Contrary to much 20th century comment and assumption, Cross
demonstrates that ET or “the Isotonic Scale” could have been and was accurately tuned in late 19th
century, although reed organs in my possession now demonstrate significant errors after 140 years.
------
20
(3) 1915
The Instruments with Sympathetic Strings
T. Lea Southgate - Proceedings of the Musical Association, 42nd Sess. (1915 - 1916), pp. 33-50
Bemoans loss of instruments such as Viole d'Amour having resonating strings. Does not appreciate the
relevance and importance of harmonic accordance of the harmonics of the strings with the notes of the
scale for proper effectiveness.
(4) 1935
Some Puzzles about Temperament
Percy A. Scholes
The Musical Times, Vol. 76, No. 1111 (Sep., 1935), pp. 786-789
(Wikipedia notes “Scholes described harpsichord music as a toasting fork on a birdcage”)
Starts upon the assumption that Bach wrote for Equal temperament and takes as evidence composers
writing composition in each and all keys.
J C Kerll – duet on a ground bass 1627-93
Mattheson – Organistenprobe 1719
Bernhard Christian Weber.
For the piano, Giustini's sonatas 1732 allegedly required ET and Scholes called for research into “The
appearance of ET in musical composition and its influence thereon”.
Quotes Editorial of Musical Times on A J Hipkins, the Broadwood piano tuner “In 1844 he was
transferred to the Great Pulteney Street warehouse where he quietly persevered with his studies in
ET. . . . From that time ET was definitely established in the leading house of the English piano trade”.
Referring to organs he quotes Exeter Hall in ET 1848 but SS Wesley required St George's Hall
Liverpool to be in Unequal. Converted on account of organist Best in 1867, Norwich in UT to 1877
Noted that string players vary intonation to the nature of the passage, brass rather governed by
harmonics and concertinas were reputed to be in Meantone.
------
Note - Possibly the first in the 20th century to ask the question about temperament.
------
(5) 1939
Just Temperament
Ll. S. Lloyd
Music & Letters, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Oct., 1939), pp. 365-373
“Those who are at all interested in theory, or in getting rid of misconceptions for which we have to
thank a past generation of theoreticians, will be able to judge of its significance for themselves. But
there is another reason why the problems of musical theory should make an appeal to some of us.
Science is at last beginning to resolve the difficulties which surround our conceptions of the musical
sounds we perceive. The man of science, working at problems of aural perception, needs the co-
operation of the musician. In the history and practice of music there is to be found much evidence
which the man of science needs to use in his investigations; for if we are to understand musical
acoustics we must begin with music and establish correct musical premises.”
21
(6) 1940
The Myth of Equal Temperament
Ll. S. Lloyd
Music & Letters, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Oct., 1940), pp. 347-361
Quotes Encylcopedia Brittanica 14th ed – article Harmony - “No true harmonic ideas are based on
equal temperament”
“the musical amateur of today is often unaware that the tuning with which he is familiar on his piano ,
became in general in this country only a little more than a century ago, and is quite a modern
innovation on the organ. The tuning of organs in mean-tone temperament was the rule in the first half
of the nineteenth century and our grandfathers contrasted it favourably with the new fangled tuning.
Thus in “The philosophy of music” (1879), William Pole wrote:
“The modern practice of tuning all organs to equal temperament has been a fearful detriment to
their quality of tone. Under the old tuning an organ made harmonious and attractive music,
which it was a pleasure to listen to . . . . Now, the harsh thirds, applied to the whole instrument
indiscriminately, give it a cacophonous and repulsive effect”
“When the “theoretician” assures us that composers or artists think or play, in any exact sense, in equal
temperament we are entitled to ask him to explain, scientifically, how they do it. If the piano tuner
does not succeed in attaining a perfect equal temperament, how can the artist, playing a momentary
note on an instrument of free intonation estimate exactly a dissonance which, as Helmholtz showed,
must lack definition?”
The outstanding feature of temperament is, not the precise degree of mistuning implied in any
particular system, but the fact that it postulates a rigid intonation. The idea that Bach, of all people,
elected to compose in such an intonation has only to be put into words to be dismissed as untenable.”
(7) 1941
Mozart's Choice of Keys
Alfred Einstein, Arthur Mendel
The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Oct., 1941), pp. 415-421
Does not consider influences or reasons of temperament
(8) 1947
Bach and "The Art of Temperament"
J. Murray Barbour
The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Jan., 1947), pp. 64-89
Suggested that Well Tuned, as in Bach's WTC, did not mean ET but was in the context of Simon
Stevin in Belgium in the 1600s and effectively Rameau in 1737 suggesting that a careful tuning would
result in ET. F W Marpurg interpreted JS and CPE Bach to have used ET whilst J P Kirnberger
proclaimed him mistaken. In 1691 Wermeister wrote “Musicalische Temperatur” and this was argued
by some to herald ET whilst others understood him to be proposing a temperament in which all keys
could be played.
Barbour examined repertoire and detailed temperaments and concluded that Bach required good
tuning . . .
-------------
22
Note: Kirnberger is remembered for a good temperament employing 7 perfect fifths whilst
Werkmeister used 8.
Competing taste in tunings favoured either perfect 3rds as in Meantone or perfect 5ths, and these at
any time would have been the easiest to tune and the most harmonically resonant.
-------------
(9) 1948
THE GREAT DR. BURNEY
Percy A Scholes, Oxford University Press
pp114-5 recounts Haydn's visits to London in 1791 for 18 months and again in 1794, staying with the
Latrobe family.
pp221-4 questions temperament and asks “It looks as though, in asking the simple question, “How did
Wesley play Bach's 48 on Burney's piano? [tuned to meantone temperament]” one is challenging the
acousticians and scientific musical historians to a little fresh consideration of a subject on which they
have so far pronounced rather too dogmatically, and without sufficiently checking their statements by
an examination of the actual musical repertory of the eighteenth century.”
(10) 1948
Irregular Systems of Temperament
J. Murray Barbour
Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Autumn, 1948), pp. 20-26
Investigated the variety of tuning systems proposed from the 16th century onwards and laid the
foundations for wider experiment.
(11) 1948
Studies in Keyboard Temperaments
A. R. McClure
The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 1 (Mar., 1948), pp. 28-40
“ALTHOUGH much has been written on the subject of temperaments, it is seldom that one can hear
for oneself how different systems work out in practice. A hundred years ago opportunities of that sort
must have been common, for it was not until the second half of the last century that English organ
builders decided to adopt the equally- tempered system. But now that equal temperament has become
the international usage, its merits have to be taken largely on trust since we have no other standard
conveniently to hand against which to evaluate them. Yet for several reasons it would be an advantage
to review the verdict of our Victorian ancestors that this form of fixed tuning was the best all-round
arrangement for the needs of the art, namely, the reproduction of existing music and the invention of
new.”
Examines tunings of Huygens, Robert Smith and Yasser
(12) 1951
Prelleur, Geminiani, and Just Intonation
David D. Boyden
Examined Just Intonation for the violin as instructed by Prelleur, Geminiani and Tartini in the early
18th century.
23
Quotes Tosi's manual for singers of 1723
“Everyone knows not that there is a Semi- tone Major and Minor, because the Differ- ence cannot be
known by an Organ or Harpsichord, if the Keys of the Instru- ment are not split. A Tone, that gradually
passes to another, is divided into nine almost imperceptible Intervals, which are called Comma's, five
of which constitute the Semitone Major, and four the Minor. . . If one were continually to sing to those
above-mention'd Instruments, this Knowledge might be unnecessary; but since the time that
Composers introduced the Custom of crowding the Opera's with a vast Number of Songs accompanied
with Bow Instruments, it becomes so necessary, that if a Soprano was to sing D-sharp, like E-flat, a
nice Ear will find he [i.e., Soprano castrato] is out of Tune, because this last rises. Whoever is not
satisfied in this, let him read those Authors who treat of it, and let him consult the best Performers on
the Violin. ”
(Note – one wonders if this was the reason for vibrato in operatic singing)
He concludes:
“Galliard, the 18th-century translator, says in a valuable note to paragraph 3: "NB. From a Tone minor
the Appoggiatura is better and easier than from a Tone major." This distinction between two kinds of
whole tones is also a characteristic of just intonation but not of meantone temperament.
If singers were accompanied only by the keyboard they need not distinguish two kinds of
semitones( i.e., they would use equal temperament), but in accompaniment with "Bow Instruments"
the distinction is necessary to sing in tune . . . . Hence keyboards used one system of tuning, violins
another, and singers adapted themselves to the circumstances of their accompaniment ”
“Prelleur, Geminiani, and Tartini point to a kind of just intonation flexibly applied to suc- cessive
intervals with adjustments when necessary both melodically and harmonically on each of the four
strings, tuned in pure fifths, as points of reference. That just intonation in some form was used by the
strings when playing alone seems indisputable. Tosi makes clear that singers accompanied by strings
alone adopt the intonation system of the latter. What happened when the keyboard was combined with
the strings and/ or the voice is a matter of speculation
The practice of the 18th and 20th centuries is markedly divergent with respect to the relative pitch of
the flats and sharps of enharmonic pairs. Violinists today tend to play leading tones quite sharp and, in
enharmonic pairs, to play sharps higher in pitch than flats. These tendencies, which represent those of
the Pythagorean system, are diametrically opposed both to just intonation and to meantone
temperament, where in enharmonic pairs sharps are lower in pitch than flats. Therefore, in
performing such Baroque violin music as depends on just intonation or on the meantone
temperament, should not the performance practice of the present day be reversed in favor of lower-
pitched sharps and leading tones and in favor of higher-pitched flats? ”
He refers to Meantone thirds and Just Intonation putting thirds upon the harmonic spectrum, arguing
that possibly Mozart was using Just Intonation rather than Meantone.
“two tones which are sounded loudly and simultaneously produce a third tone whose frequency (pitch)
is the difference of the frequencies of the two generating tones. Tartini and Mozart used this
phenomenon to check the purity of the intonation of double stops, for, as Mozart emphasizes, the
differential tone will not be that described unless the other two notes are perfectly in tune”
24
(13) 1956
THE ARITHMETIC OF THE MUSICAL SCALE
L. H. BEDFORD
Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Vol. 104, No. 4977 (11TH MAY, 1956), pp. 465-481
“About the year 500 b.c., Pythagoras gave a clear arithmetical basis to the musical scale. In 1885 Ellis
and Hipkin (1) were able to collect and tabulate on a numerical basis some 130 musical scales from all
sources. From 1850 onwards the Even Tempered scale for keyed instruments gained ascendancy
over all previous temperaments, a situation which has become so far consolidated that scarcely any
living person has had the opportunity of hearing anything else. In these circumstances, it may well
be asked what more remains to be said and what justification exists for a paper of the present title? To
this highly reasonable question, one may offer the following answers :
First the universal adoption of Even Temper has not only thrown into oblivion the beautiful
arithmetical patterns which underlie the earlier temperaments but has also brought about the
situation that such temperaments can never be heard. The present paper, with its essential
component of musical demonstrations, endeavours to correct this situation.
More importantly, however, a new issue comes up for consideration arising from the interesting
impact of a new subject on one some hundred times its age that of electronics on music. With the
introduction of electronic musical instruments, especially the electronic organ, still in its infancy (and
of suspected illegitimacy), we are for the first time in history unfettered from the restriction of a fixed
temperament. The implications of this remain to be assessed, but should imply a revival of interest in
the subject of scales and temperament . . . “
(He describes experiments with Just Diatonic Scales, Meantone, and Simonton of 1953 “Integral
Ratio Chromatic” without reference to other tunings with historic authority)
By resorting to an Even Tempered scale we lose all the difficulties which arise from the existence of
commas, these being in general an expression of the inequality (^)r # (q)s, where all the symbols are
(positive) integers. But we also lose the full consonance arising from the occurrence of integral
frequency ratios*. Further we lose a former peculiarity of keyed instruments, namely the association of
individual 'colours' to the various keys, arising from the fact that in the absence of Even Temper no
two keys show exactly the same system of intervals.
One commonly reads that J. S. Bach was a vigorous supporter of Even Temper and that the 48
Preludes and Fugues were written to demonstrate its capabilities. But there are difficulties in accepting
this statement. In the first place, it seems fairly certain that Bach never played an Even Tempered
organ, at least not habitually, and that the 'well tempering' of the clavichord on an Even Tempered
basis is attributable to C. P. E. Bach rather than to his father. Again a set of 48 pieces to demonstrate
this thesis contains a redundancy factor of 24. Even for so prolific a composer as J. S. Bach, this seems
a little excessive. It is therefore likely that the 'well tempering' here referred to was in the nature of an
approximation to the Even Temper, and indeed it is difficult to see how this could have been otherwise
bearing in mind the difficulties accruing from the high decrement of the clavichord tone and the
limitation of technical facilities . . .
The present writer, who had been seeking a way out of the Even Temper disadvantage mentioned
above, namely the loss of individual key colours, was much attracted by the I.R.C. scale, and therefore
proceeded to tune a piano on this basis. Expectations were not fulfilled ; key colours were indeed
restored but, in the writer's opinion, in a highly unacceptable manner, reminiscent of the worst defects
of the Just Diatonic scale. This experience serves to show the high noticeability of quite small
departures from the accepted scales as well as the impossibility of pre-judging a scale on a proper
basis.
25
CONCLUSION
One frequently reads of endeavours to reproduce major classical works in their original orchestral or
choral format, and such efforts are praiseworthy enough. But does one ever hear of a production in the
original temperament? Probably not, since the subject has practically subsided into oblivion under the
triumphant impact of Even Temper. Temper. Therefore the proposal of a new scale such as Simonton 's
is refreshing and encouraging, irrespective of one's personal assessment of the outcome. But the
triumph of Even Temper rests on instrumental restrictions which are coming to an end with the
introduction of electronic musical instruments. The future remains open to a wide range of
conjecture.”
REFERENCES
i.A. J. Ellis, Tonometric Observation on some existing non-harmonic scales, Proc. of Royal Society ,
Vol- XXXVII 20th November, 1884. A. J. Ellis, On the musical scales of various nations, Jnl. of Roy
al Society of Arts, V ol. XXXIII, 27th March, 1885.
ii.H. Fletcher, Speech and, hearing in communication.
iii.Helmholtz, Sensations of tone. Chap. 16.
iv.Т. Е. Simonton, Jnl. of Acoustical Society of America , November, 1953
DISCUSSION
MR. M. T. BIZONY: Does Mr. Bedford agree that with Even Temperament it is a waste of time for a
composer to make any sort of fuss about the key he is writing in except whether it is a minor or major
key? Anything else that he may determine by writing in A major rather than in say, В major is merely
the pitch; but if we have Just Diatonic scale, then we retain an individual quality with each key.
THE LECTURER: There is this residual question: does there exist individual key colour in spite of
Even Temperament? When I play the piano myself I suspect that there is, but I am unable to detect it
from someone else's playing. One of my reasons for exploring this apparently dead piece of ground
(for after all this subject was wound up at the end of the last century and buried) is that, as I have
hinted, I am very interested in electronic organ design, and the question of temperament is most
important. I was very reluctant to see a complete loss of key colours by the adoption of Even Temper,
and I was looking for some way of restoring individual key colour. Of course, you can get it, but I
regret to say that every scheme I have tried I have found extremely disagreeable. I have grown
absolutely Even-tempered ears as a result of my investigation.
(14) 1959
AN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY MUSICAL TOUR IN FRANCE AND GERMANY
being Dr. Charles Burney's Account of his musical experiences
Edited by Percy A Scholes, Oxford University Press
p6 Note on temperament – Mentions meantone then “Nowadays all keyboard instruments are tuned to
a system (Equal Temperament) by which all the notes are tuned to a more complete compromise
which is sufficiently near the true tuning for our accustomed ears not to object”
------
Note equal temperament bias!
------
(15) 1964
HARMONIC PRINCIPLES OF JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES -
JAMES WOODROW KREHBIEL Submitted to the faculty of the Graduate School in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Music Theory Indiana
University March, 1964 Seminal research documenting Rameau and others' concepts of harmony, of
scale and part contributed by overtones, harmonics or partials to the musical experience and of
sympathetic vibrations crucial to temperament considerations.
26
Regarding Rameau's analysis of overtones - “The intervals which can be derived from these numbers
are the octave (2:1), perfect fifth (3:2), perfect fourth (U:3), major sixth (5:3), minor sixth (8:5), major
third (5:4), minor third (6:5), major seconds (9:8 and 10:9), minor second (16:15), and compound
combinations of these, e.g., the perfect twelfth (3:1). Meantone tuning uses the partials 1, 2, 4, 5, 8,
10, and 16, of which only 1 and 5 represent new pitches, and the only intervals used are the
octave (2:1) and the major third (5:4). Equal temperament uses only the octave (2:1). ”
-------
Note: This sets understanding of Meantone as twice as harmonious as Equal Temperament, and twice
as richly resonant in setting up harmonious sympathetic vibrations
-------
(16) 1964
K. Holland, R. L. Coote
The Musical Times, Vol. 105, No. 1458 (Aug., 1964), p. 589
Letter reporting tuning piano to ¼ comma meantone. “We are astonished that composers and listeners
ever tolerated (the defects of Mean Tone Tuning)! . . . The dreadful intervals are all too frequent in
Bach and the other early keyboard music that we have tried. The composers seem to make no
concessions to their system. We were led to suppose that some of the elaborate decoration of early
music was wrtten to disguise mistuned intervals; but we find that these decorations do not lessen the
discordant effect”.
Asks whether others have conducted experiments and possibly with 6th Comma Meantone or other
modifications.
Responses by John Barnes, John R. White, Hector C. Parr

The Musical Times, Vol. 105, No. 1460 (Oct., 1964), pp. 744-745
(17) 1968
Equal Temperament and the English Organ, 1675-1825
Peter Williams
Acta Musicologica, Vol. 40, Fasc. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1968), pp. 53-65
Reviewed English organ tuning from Charles II to Victoria. There were vested interests in the debates
between Renatus Harris for whom Dr Walliss's proposals of an equal temperament avoided the
troubles and expense of adding a couple of extra quarter tones to the octave, as executed by his rival
Father Smith. Writers such as Maxwell “An essay upon tune” 1781 proposed 44 rather than 18 notes
to the octave. He reviewed “Handel's rules” for tuning involving unequal fifths, and others. Dr Burney
is quoted referring to some set of anthems being “in flat keys; most of them in C and F minor, which
are much out of tune on the organ by the usual temperament of that instrument; however, if well sung,
these crude chords may add to the melancholy cast of the composition. ” The impact of music from
Germany which seemed to require an “equal temperament” brought increasing awareness of tuning
systems and organs and pianos were equipped with pedals to bring in different mechanisms to alter
pitches according to key. EARL STANHOPE, in his Principles of the Science of Tuning (London
1806) said that most musicians wanted the key-characteristics of unequal Temperament preserved and
he did so proposing a temperament with three perfect thirds. Others brought forward schemes of
octaves of 59 notes, with keys coloured to indicate consonances and Williams concludes: “It is
astonishing that people felt so strongly against Equal Temperament to try to realize these impractical
systems, especially since it was so necessary to the music of the early 18oos. At the same time,
sympathy can be felt for those idealists who hated sharp thirds and flat fifths on the sustained tones of
the organs; their sensitivity was not mere English conservatism.”
27
(18) 1969
The Enigmatic Cima: Meantone Tuning and Transpositions
Clare G. Rayner
The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 22 (Mar., 1969), pp. 23-34
“the general meantone sound is much different from what we are used to with the equal tempered
system, and consequently initially strange to our ears. It is a much coarser sound, but also a much
more alive sound . . . .
it appears that the most significant melodic pitches, the dominant and the leading tone of the scale, are
generally flat while the secondary intervals of minor thirds and sixths are generally sharp. This might
be expected to produce an overall duller sound, but once again the opposite appears to be true since
the meantone sound is not only an alive sound, but truly a vibrant one in all keys, provided the
appropriate alterations are effected for each transposition ”
(19) 1970
More on the Tuning of the "Archicembalo"
Henry W. Kaufmann
Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Spring, 1970), pp. 84-94
“Vicentino's instrument is provided with two keyboards, each containing three ranks or orders of
keys, placed in removable frames. There are sixty-nine jacks in the first keyboard and sixty-three in
the second, making a total of one hundred thirty-two keys in all. The accompanying diagram -(Figure
1)3 shows the disposition of the six orders of keys within the two keyboards and the notation used by
Vicentino for each sound.
...
The first order" is made up entirely of white keys that correspond to those found in most keyboard
instruments. The second order contains the black keys most frequently used in the sixteenth century. In
modern terms, these would include F-sharp, G-sharp, B-flat, c-sharp, and E-flat. The keys of the
second order are split and raised to provide for the third order, which is then completed by the
insertion of shortened black keys between the semitones E-F and B-c. This order contains the less
commonly used semitones: G-flat, A-flat, A-sharp, B-sharp, D-flat, D-sharp, E-sharp. . . . The second
frame begins with the fourth order, which contains the same white keys as the first order, but pitched a
minor enharmonic diesis higher. This new pitch, equal to one-half the value of the minor semitone,6 is
represented notationally by a dot over . . .
In effect, the tuning of the archicembalo, derived from meantone temperament and leaning towards
equal temperament, allowed, because of its microtonal intervals, an adjustment to other contemporary
tunings, since interval size could be varied in innumerable ways. . . . The novel and visionary
concepts evoked by Vicentino's imagination remain witness to the battle of those original musical
spirits of sixteenth-century Italy who fought for a new and contemporary art. From their struggles
emerged the free chromatic style of the seconda prattica of the seventeenth century and the
stablilization of tuning into the equal temperament of more modern times ”
(20) 1975
Vicentino's "Incerta et occulta scientia" Reexamined
Maria Rika Maniates
Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Summer, 1975), pp. 335-351
“The construction of the two-manual archicembalo with its six orders (three in each keyboard) has
been described in detail by Henry Kaufmann.8 Accord- ing to Vicentino, this instrument can be tuned
in two different ways: one producing the chromatic semitones, enharmonic dieses, and commas
necessary for the three genera; and one producing perfect fifths and thirds ”
28
(21) 1975
Wie stimme ich selbst mein Cembalo?
Dr Anton Kellner
Proposed a system of tuning using 7 perfect fifths and relying on the beating of C-E to be the same as
C-G
------
Note – this is not dissimilar in effect to the tuning found by Alistair Laurence of Broadwood Pianos
from interpretation of Handel's notes on tuning
------
(22) 1977
Instructions for the Clavier Diversely Tempered
Mark Lindley
Early Music, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Jan., 1977), pp. 18-23
Encouraged experimentation with instructions for Pythagorean, Meantone, Werckmeister,

“Temperament ordinaire” and Vallotti
(23) 1977
Mozart's Teaching of Intonation
John Hind Chesnut
Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Summer, 1977), pp. 254-271
Proposes Mozart preferred 6th Comma Meantone tuning. Wrote about discernment of major and minor
semitones. Quotes Hummel in 1828 referring to pianos tuned to ET. (Query whether ET or keys
equally playable) Research suggesting first clavier works intended for piano were piano sonatas from
K279 onwards.
(24) 1978
A Question of Temperament: Purcell and Croft
John Meffen
The Musical Times, Vol. 119, No. 1624 (Jun., 1978), pp. 504-506
“In England, equal temperament was accepted as standard during the second half of the 19th century.
Just what temperaments were used before then is not wholly clear. Circulating temperaments that
allow all keys to be used while favouring some more than others had been discussed by Charles
Stanhope, John Farey, Thomas Young and others at the beginning of the century. Alexander Ellis
referred to the use of meantone modified by raising G#, and Henry Liston, in 1812, had discussed 1/4-,
1/5-, 1/6-, and 5/18-comma as well as equal temperament (or 1/11-comma), citing 1/5-comma as 'more
nearly what is in common use'.
Keyboard music forms a fairly small part of Purcell's total output, as indeed it does that of all his
English contemporaries. Most of Purcell's compositions fit a standard meantone scale of C, CS, D, El,
E, F, F#, G, G#, A, Bb, B. The exceptional notes are mainly A,s and D# . . . We could, however, follow
North's advice and 'abate the rancor of the scismes' by adding an appoggiatura or trill, or, as North put
it, 'favouring the #G by a mixture with the note above (that is with WA) be it [by] a back-fall or slight
trill.
. . . it is evident that a new method of tuning was being exploited in England at the turn of the 17th
century. Because of his untimely death in 1695, Purcell may not have felt its impact; or could it be that
because of his early training as a professional tuner, he simply resisted it? Whatever the cause, it is in
the harpsichord works of William Croft rather than in those of his more illustrious contemporary,
Purcell, that we see the first clear indication of a standard meantone tuning being rejected in favour of
29
an irregular system, and, consequently, the first important step being taken in England along the road
which was to lead, eventually, to the adoption of equal temperament for keyboard instruments ”
(25) 1978
Barrel Organ: The story of the mechanical Organ and its repair
lOrd-Hume Arthur W.J.G.
p.505 “. . . the system of unequal temperament was followed until at least the middle of the 19th
century and this explains why it is difficult to tune some early instruments to the scale as we know it
today. Many of the tonal imperfections which our educated ears wince at today were indeed
acceptable and intentional at the time the organ was first made.”
(26) 1979
Well-Tempering' the Clavier: Five Methods
William Blood
Early Music, Vol. 7, No. 4, Keyboard Issue 1 (Oct., 1979), pp. 491+493+495
The author was killed in a car accident in 1978 and Mark Lindley assisted in preparing the article for
publication. Examined temperaments by Werkmeister (no. 1), Vallotti and three schemes of Neidhart.
Addressed two assumptions – that Bach's WTC required equal temperament, neglecting the fact that
“all closed-circle temperaments” allow unlimited enharmonic modulation and choice of key, and that
temperaments were merely intellectual diversions of academicians rather than the most practical
temperaments to tune well.
(27) 1979
Bach's Keyboard Temperament: Internal Evidence from the Well-Tempered
Clavier
John Barnes
Early Music, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Apr., 1979), pp. 236-237+239+241-245+247+249
Variation of Werkmeister III based on examination of major thirds in the WTC
(28) 1979
A Mathematical Approach Reconstituting J. S. Bach's Keyboard-Temperament
Herbert Anton Kellner
Bach, Vol. 10, No. 4 (OCTOBER, 1979), pp. 2-8
Explanation of temperament explaining Baroque principles
(29) 1980
The Tuning of my Harpsichord
Dr Anton Kellner – translation into English from the 1975 publication in German
(30) 1980
A history of Key Characteristics in the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries - Rita
Steblin
Seminal and exhaustive book. Details inter alia the Marpurg attack on Kirnberger, Marpurg advocating
ET and Kirnberger championing the differences between keys which held sway. She quotes
Kirnberger, a student of Bach, having been surrounded by a loyal and influential group of supporters,
Sulzer, Schulz and Templehof. Leopold Mozart was influenced by Kirnberger's views.
30
(31) 1980
Pythagorean Intonation and the Rise of the Triad
Mark Lindley
Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle, No. 16 (1980), pp. 4-61, iv
(32) 1981
Temperament and the Piano
Philip P. Jones
Early Music, Vol. 9, No. 3, Wind Issue (Jul., 1981), p. 416
Reports that fortepianist Malcolm Bilson is no longer using ET for recordings, adopting “Well
Temperaments” instead. Quotes him as saying that he did not deviate very far from ET in Mozart
sonatas 12 K332 and 13 K333 as it “might distract people from what they are used to hearing”
The writer however enthuses over 6th comma Meantone instructions having been sent to him by Bilson
and to which he tuned his piano with success and enthusiasm of friends wanting their instruments
tuned likewise.
------
NOTE: These particular sonatas _require_ meantone to be understood and dynamics have to be
exactly obeyed – these recordings missed the vital opportunity
------
(33)
THE USE OF MATHEMATICS IN SELECTED ASPECTS OF MUSIC
DAVID T. GRAVES - Submitted in partial fulfillm ent of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities. Full and
encyclopedic resource inter alia gives convenient table of frequencies for ET and MT scale from
which measures of harmonic resonance of the scale systems can be derived p116
(34) 1981
Bach's Temperament
Claudio Di Véroli
Early Music, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Apr., 1981), pp. 219-221
Pours scorn upon Kellner's temperament
(35) 1984
The Emperor's New Clothes: Nineteenth-Century Instruments Revisited
Robert Winter
19th-Century Music, Vol. 7, No. 3, Essays for Joseph Kerman (Apr. 3, 1984), pp. 251-265
Criticises fetish for recordings on poor examples of original instruments, pointing to the poor
condition of prize instruments in the Colt collection being in less than peak form.
-----
Note: Has no consciousness of influence of temperament on sound or reception.
-----
(36) 1985
J. S. Bach's Tunings
Mark Lindley
The Musical Times, Vol. 126, No. 1714 (Dec., 1985), pp. 721-726
Reviewed literature and evidence inspired by Barbour 1947 “the Art of Temperament”and sought a
better tuning for Bach than Werkmeister suggesting something milder along the lines of Neidhart,
Sorge and even Corrette with stretched octaves. He notes colouration of preludes in the WTC for
instance with an increase of gravity from C to D to Eb minor, for instance and suggests a flexible
31
approach to be appropriate. Whilst some music, he concluded, sounded better in ET, BWV910
includes as sequence repeated 24 times which in unequal temperament makes the section to sound
“like an improvisatory exploration of modulatory nuances and not a regression to aimless wandering
in the midst of an otherwise impressive composition”
------
Note: Other composers have made similar explorations, particularly Beethoven Op 39 and Mozart to
a more limited extent in his piano sonatas. Likewise Chopin's 24 preludes. WTC 18 in G# minor
suffers from obliteration of emotion in ET
-----
(37) 1985
Buxtehude's Organs: Helsingør, Helsingborg, Lübeck. 2: The Lübeck Organs
Kerala J. Snyder
The Musical Times, Vol. 126, No. 1709 (Jul., 1985), pp. 427+429+431-434
Notes specification and conversion from Meantone to Werckmeister (1)
(38) 1987
Tuning: At the Crossroads
Wendy Carlos
Computer Music Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1, Microtonality (Spring, 1987), pp. 29-43
Examines tuning spectra of harmonics and the way in which perfect tuning brings the scale into
harmony rather than the fuzziness of out of tune scale jarring with harmonics.
“The arena of musical scales and tuning has certainly not been a quiet place to be for the past three
hundred years. But it might just as well have been if we judge by the results: the same 12/2 equally
tempered scale established then as the best available tuning compromise, by J. S. Bach and many
others (Helmholtz 1954; Apel 1972), remains to this day essentially the only scale heard in Western
music. That monopoly crosses all musical styles, from the most contemporary of jazz and avant- garde
classical, and musical masterpieces from the past, to the latest technopop rock with fancy syn-
thesizers, and everywhere in between. Instruments of the symphony orchestra attempt with varying
degrees of success to live up to the 100-cent semitone . . . Yet this apparent lack of adventurousness
is not due to any lack of good alternatives (Olson 1967; Backus 1977; Lloyd and Boyle 1979; Bateman
1980; Balzano 1980) or their champions. Indeed an experienced musician would have to be
preposterously naive, sheltered, and deaf (!) not to have encoun- tered at least a name or two like
Yasser (1975) or Partch (1979), or in an earlier era, Bosanquet, White, Brown, or General Thompson
(Helmholtz 1954; Partch 1979). These pioneers were certainly not known for their shy reticence on
behalf of their various tuning reform proposals . . . .Of course there's a perfectly reasonable explana-
tion for the mainstream's evident preference to remain "rut-bound" when by now there are at least a
dozen clearly better-sounding ways to tune our scales, if only for at least part of the time: it requires a
lot of effort of several kinds ”
She singles out Barbour for measuring deviations from ET as the norm implying a perspective of
normalcy and others. . . . “Barbour represents among musical theorists the best of the knowledgeable
"champions" on behalf of equal temperament” “It may seem unfair to single out Barbour as above,
although somehow I wince more from his and other theorists' polemic on behalf of "the haves" of
status quo versus "the have nots" of anyone who might not totally agree with the final sentence of
Barbour's book: Perhaps the philosophical Neidhardt should be allowed to have the last word on the
subject: "Thus equal temperament carries with itself its comfort and discomfort, like the holy estate of
matrimony That's a cute quote, but its use here is not a little smug, suggesting what was "good enough
for Grandpa" ought be good enough in perpetuity for the rest of us ”
32
She identifies computer controlled synthesis as an opportunity to explore other tunings. She concludes
“I have been fascinated by scales and tuning for about thirty years, well before discovering electronic
music, with the single exception of Olson's (1967, chapter 10) demonstration record of the RCA
Synthesizer in 1953. For all those who helped and those on whose shoulders I am lucky to stand,
deepest thanks. We've been treading water much too long, and I'm delighted that the real work now
can begin. ”
------
Note: Written in 1987 are we any further progressed in performance?
------
(39) 1990
Aspects of Mozart's Music in G Minor Toward the Identification of Common Structural and
Compositional Features
Steven Bradley Jan L., Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Ph. D. The
University of Leeds Department of Music
Criticises Einstein (above) for statement “G minor is for Mozart the key of fate, as we know from the
symphonies and a string quintet; and the wild command that opens the first movement (of the Piano
Quartet K. 478] ” but is unaware of Masonic associations of G. “My aim here is the rejection of "the
game of key speculation" with respect to Mozart's music in the key of G minor and the establishment
in its place of a more empirical basis for the study of this repertory.”
He takes temperament into account: “Despite the general movement towards equal temperament, in
the late 18th Century the most prominent keyboard tunings were a number of related irregular or
circulating temperaments, characterised by variation in the tuning of the thirds, with those of the C
major scale tempered least and those of more sharp- and flat-laden keys tempered more. This system
eliminates the so-called "Wolf Fifth" of "Meantone Temperament": 6 in " Quarter- comma" meantone,
eight major thirds are tuned to . . . pure . . . One of the most widely disseminated of these irregular
temperaments was that proposed by the celebrated theorist Johann Phillip Kirnberger in his treatise
Dig Kunst des Reinen Satzes in der Musik (1771-1779) and nowadays referred to as "Kirnberger II". ”
----
Note: it's unlikely that aural experience of the music discussed was available to the writer in the
temperaments acknowledged to be used at the time
----
(40) 1990
C A PADGHAM - “Well-Tempered Organ” Positif Press
Essential authority of its time. Documents temperaments with tuning instructions following articles in
the BIOS Journals (British Institute of Organ Studies)
(41) 1991
Beyond Temperament: Non-Keyboard Intonation in the 17th and 18th Centuries
Bruce Haynes
Early Music, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Aug., 1991), pp. 356-365+367-370+372-381
Examines instrumental intonation. Concludes that the concept of major and minor semitones is vital to
18th century tuning practice and how logically it leads to various temperaments, providing also a more
expressive and harmonious structure of intervals. Refers to Thomas Busby, Universal Dictionary of
Music referring to major and minor semitones as late as 1813
33
(42) 1991
A Venerable Temperament Rediscovered
Douglas Leedy
Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Summer, 1991), pp. 202-211
“IN THE HISTORY OF Western music, the keyboard temperament with the longest run was
meantone, which was the nearly universal standard from 1350 or so until it was almost totally eclipsed
by twelve-tone equal temperament (twelve-equal) in the first half of the nineteenth century. Mean-
tone and the development (and ultimate success) of keyboard instruments are inextricably intertwined:
because its sonorities are so close to those of just tuning, meantone was able to emulate the sweetness
of post- Pythagorean, pure triadic intonation characteristic of vocal music . . .
What unfortunately cannot be conveyed in words is the warm and serene beauty of meantone's
consonant harmonies, its arresting dissonances, or the vivid color, kaleidophonic variety, and
expressive strength of its melodic intervals. These need to be heard and savored over time, for time is
necessary to accustom oneself to meantone's richness and to become attuned to its subtlety and
shading-much as one would need time to become accustomed to the replacement of a diet of uniform
blandness with the variety of flavor, color, and piquancy afforded by a Lucullan cuisine.
. . . To sum up: meantone has superior harmonic sonorities, including excel- lent versions of some
septimal intervals, along with a highly varied melodic pallette.
. . . Considering its remarkable attributes, it is not difficult to feel that meantone temperament deserves
a second hearing. ”
(43) 1991
Key, Temperament and Musical Expression
James O. Young
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 49, No. 3 (Summer, 1991), pp. 235-242
Concludes:
“so long as unequal temperaments are employed the widespread belief in key characteristics is well
justified. There is a resemblance between intervals in unequally tempered scales and aspects of human
expressiveness. This resemblance makes certain keys better suited than others to music
expressive of certain emotions. Many composers exploited this suitability and we lose something
in interpreting their music if we neglect it.”
(44) 1993
ENHARMONICISM IN THEORY AND PRACTICE IN 18TH-CENTURY MUSIC
DISSERTATION
Paula Jean Telesco, B.A., M.M.
Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in
the Graduate School of the Ohio State University
Enharmonicism independent of temperament, following writings and theory of Rameau
(45) 1994
Temple Tuning Systems
Ernest G. McClain and Siegmund Levarie
International Journal of Musicology Vol. 3 (1994), pp. 23-30
Reconstructs scale used in Soloman's temple from Pythagorean principles and harmonic ratios
34
(46) 1994
KEPLER, BACH, AND GAUSS: THE CELESTIAL HARMONY OF THE EARTH'S MOTION
Bach, Vol. 25, No. 1 (SPRING-SUMMER 1994), pp. 46-56
Connexions of harmonic accordance between mathematics of astronomy, geometry and music.
Incomprehensible to musical academics who had rejected his work, but demonstrated sound reasoning
by for example Niccolò Guicciardini's 2013 thesis below.
(47) 1997
SELECTED PIANO COMPOSITIONS OF BEETHOVEN AND SCHUBERT AND THE
EFFECT OF WELL TEMPERAMENT ON PERFORMANCE PRACTICE
Robyn M Rysavy - A DISSERTATION IN Performance Presented to the Faculty of the University of
Missouri-Kansas City in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL
ARTS
“In the effort toward recovering the actual sound of older music, one aspect that has been neglected, or
at least unevenly noted, is that of tuning and temperament. While most scholars and performers of
early music recognize the use of various tunings in music of the Renaissance through the seventeenth
century, there is a tacit assumption that at the time of Bach and Handel equal temperament . . . took
over the field and settled the matter of tuning—especially for keyboard instruments—once and for all.
Through the research of scholars such as Mark Lindley and Owen Jorgensen it has become
increasingly evident that "equal temperament" was far from uniform in the fixed pitch instruments at
the time of Mozart and even of Beethoven. Rather, there seems to have been a proliferation of "well-
tempered" tunings . . . the keys with fewest sharps or flats are the purest and those with four or more
sharps or flats sound strident.
There was a well-established tradition among musicians and composers, extending
well into the nineteenth century, of associating particular emotions or affects with individual
keys. The tradition is really understandable only in the context of well-tempered tunings and
certain meantone temperaments. Pervasive use of equal temperament would hardly support
such a tradition, since it makes no distinctions among keys; they all sound the same.
Witnesses such as Johann Nepomuk Hummel. a student of Mozart and acquaintance of
Beethoven, testified to the authenticity and current use of well-tempered tunings, and the use
of these tunings makes a significant difference in the sound of late eighteenth- and early
nineteenth-century music—whether performed on period instruments or modern ones.
Juxtapositions of distant keys between movements, and turns toward remote tonalities within
movements have a heightened effect in these tunings of which listeners to equal temperament
are perhaps less aware. And particular aspects of piano playing, such as the special pedaling
effects in Beethoven, for example, are intimately tied to the tuning that is used. . . .
After experiencing the many historical temperaments on a modem piano, and
practicing musical compositions corresponding to the dates of the temperaments, the writer
became aware of the significance of tuning in performance. This newfound awareness of
what the writer believes to be the "missing link" in performance practice led to many lecture
demonstrations and workshops dealing with the impact of the historical temperaments on
interpretation, and several "temperament recitals" which sought to match compositions with
appropriate temperaments.. . . .
It is the belief of this writer that tuning is a

matter of considerable significance for performance and musical understanding of historical
repertory. It is hoped that this paper will inspire further interest in the topic ”
35
Of Meantone he writes - “the purpose is to exploit the beauty of the consonant, mathematically pure
major third. The beauty of both harmonic and melodic major thirds goes unappreciated by the modern
listener as unremarkable because of the absence of coincident harmonic beats. The absence of beats
produces a unique and peaceful sound. Accompanying the much preferred sound of the pure third, is
its opposite, the very dissonant wolf "fifth" and other wolf intervals produced by chords containing
seconds and sevenths. These intervals are more than just dissonant. They are, as Owen Jander states in
his notes on the Fisk organ and its tuning, "pungently out of tune".
Other differences include the way half steps sound in relation to each other. In equal
temperament, all half steps are tuned an equal distance of 100 cents apart. In 1/4-comma
meantone tuning, the half steps differ in size; some sound closer together or narrower, and
some sound further apart, or larger. These harmonic characteristics were often exploited by
composers who included extended chromatic passages in their compositions. Harmonically
sounding wolf intervals were often purposely included in compositions for their Affekt. One
can hear this, for example in the recording made by Bernard Lagace on the C. B. Fisk Organ
at Wellesley College. Included in this collection of masterpieces which were evidently
conceived in a 1/4-comma meantone temperament, is the Passacaglia in D Minor, BuxWV
161 by Dietrich Buxtehude. Here Buxtehude uses the tension and dramatic effect of the
horrendously out of tune augmented fifth to great effect. This wolf fifth is heard no fewer
than seventeen times throughout the Passacaglia, according to Owen Jander in his program
notes from 1993. As Mr. Jander states, this composition is one of music's "unique
encounters with purposeful dissonance.""”
(48) 1999
THE PROBLEM OF TEMPERAMENT IN ANTONIO SOLER'S KEYBOARD SONATAS
Carl Sloane
Revista de Musicología, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Junio 1999), pp. 87-91
Examines Soler's treatise on tuning written between 1775 and 1783 following Dom Bedos principles.
Concludes he was using ¼ comma Meantone.
-----
Note – the organ by Isnard at St Maximin France 1775 is built also on Dom Bedos principles using a
“modified meantone”
-----
(49) 1999
CONSIDERING THE TEMPERING TONALITY B-MAJOR IN PART II OF THE "WELL-
TEMPERED CLAVIER" II
Bach, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring - Summer 1999), pp. 10-25
Use of tempering B Major in setting a temperament.
------
Note – Kellner's focus upon the importance of B Major is not eccentric. B Major is the crux upon
which Werkmeister III fails horribly when used for tuning a piano for the repertoire of Chopin.
Kellner's temperament has proved itself universally useful for concerts at Hammerwood Park for a
decade.
------
(50) 2001
THE EFFECTS OF UNEQUAL TEMPERAMENT ON CHOPIN’S MAZURKAS
Willis Glen Miller, - A Doctoral Dissertation Presented To The Faculty of the School of Music University of
Houston In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Musical Arts
Seminal work – essential reading.
36
(51) 2005
Bach's Extraordinary Temperament: Our Rosetta Stone: 1
Bradley Lehman
Early Music, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Feb., 2005), pp. 3-23
Interprets the squiggle at the top of the Well Tempered Clavier score as instructions for tuning.
-----
Note - Turns it upside down and achieves a result achieving greatest key colouration not in the most
remote keys with most accidentals but around four accidentals. For this reason I regard the tuning
and ensuing controversy as a red herring in musicology
-----
(52) 2006
Bach's Temperament, Occam's Razor, and the Neidhardt Factor
John O'Donnell
Early Music, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Nov., 2006), pp. 625-633
Further considerations on the WTC squiggle. Finds a temperament not far from Kellner in effect.
(53) 2006
Analysis of Spectra in J. S. Bach's Prelude and Fugue, BWV 552
Timothy Corlis
Bach, Vol. 37, No. 1 (2006), pp. 26-49
Examines coincidences of harmonics in Kellner's tuning system with notes of the scale and the
implications for the sound resulting. He notes a clutter of overtones in equal temperament and
concludes
“This confirms the conclusions drawn earlier that the Bach-comma temperament (Kellner) offers a
version of BWV 552, clarified beyond what one finds with the use of equal temperament.
Furthermore, the analysis of the fugue yields a clear pattern of reinforced overtones, distinct from that
of the prelude, demonstrating Bach's practice of selecting chord voicings that exploit various strengths
of the instrument's temperament”
(54) 2011
Further thoughts on Bach's 1722 temperament
Luigi Swich
Early Music, Vol. 39, No. 3, Women and the sacred (August 2011), pp. 401-407
Continues consideration of Bach's squiggle, first noted by Andreas Sparschuh in 1999. Proposes
alternative to Graziano Interbartolo's interpretation of 2007. In accordance with Kellner's temperament
and Vogel and Ahrend for Arp Schnitger organ of 1688. Takes into account Bach's instructions to
Kirnberger to tune all thirds slightly sharp, an instruction upon which promoters of ET have hung
absolutely.
(55) 2011
Mistuning the World: A Cultural History of Tuning and Temperament in the
Seventeenth Century
Eric Jarlin Wang - A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor
of Philosophy in Musicology UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles
p.197 “sometimes the strange harmonies of certain works should be deliberately left mistuned for
dramatic effect. In fact, in some instances, retuning intervals so that they sound consonant actually
goes against the rhetoric of the music.”
37
(56) 2012
Rediscovering Forgotten Meanings in Schubert’s Song Cycles: Towards an
Understanding of Well Temperament as an Expressive Device In the Nineteenth-
Century Lied
Angeline Ashley Smith Van Evera, Ph.D. DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of The Benjamin T.
Rome School of Music Of The Catholic University of America In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree Doctor of Philosophy “Temperament analysis provides a new way to analyze how literary
techniques can be translated into music. My analytical model allows for the examination of key
contrast beyond the major–minor dichotomy, the association of key and extra-musical meanings, and
key choice outside of the context of traditional functional harmony; it provides an additional analytical
model for examining how Schubert’s songs and cycles work, and it could be applied to other
nineteenth-century composers as well. While the link between well temperament and Romantic
composers’ works has been long neglected, so has the examination of how Temperaturfarben impacts
expression in musical compositions from earlier eras that were known to have been composed and
performed in well temperament. While it is acknowledged that earlier composers did compose and
perform in well temperament, and many performances occur 443 on historical instruments with
historically accurate tuning, the music has not been analyzed through the lens of well temperament to
investigate how composers exploited and utilized the unique colors of the keys. ”
Notes practical difficulty in research: p441 “A logical extension of the desire to experience and
recreate Schubert’s works as nineteenth-century audiences experienced them, complete with all the
nuances created through Temperaturfarben, would be to argue that the songs should only be performed
on period instruments tuned in well temperament; however, this is not practical at this point in time.
The main obstacles in trying to create historically accurate performances of Schubert’s Lieder
are the lack of period instruments and the difficulty of changing tunings on modern pianos.
While it is possible to tune modern pianos to historical tunings, tuning is most often done by
professional technicians instead of by the performers themselves, and it would not be feasible to
change tunings frequently. ”
(57) 2013
Thomas Young’s Musical Optics: Translating Sound into Light
Peter Pesic
Osiris, Vol. 28, No. 1, Music, Sound, and the Laboratory from 1750–1980 (January 2013), pp. 15-39
Examines Young's researches into sound.
““by supposing any two or more vibrations in the same direction to be combined, the joint motion will
be represented by the sum or difference of the ordinates.” Thus, two sounds of nearly the same
strength and pitch will produce a “joint sound” called a “beat” that reaches its maximum (the sum of
the maximum of each component) on a slow rhythm determined by the difference between their
respective frequencies or pitches. Young’s sequence of cases shows the graphic difference between the
joint sounds produced by different components, and he notes that “the greater the difference in the
pitch of two sounds, the more rapid the beats, till at last, like the distinct puffs of air in the
experiments already related, they communicate the idea of a continued sound; and this is the
fundamental harmonic described by Tartini.” His diagrams show “snapshots” of the vibrating string,
translating its temporal motion into instantaneous spatial waveforms ”
-----
Note – Young was the author of a temperament similar to Vallotti
-----
38
(58) 2013
The Role of Musical Analogies in Newton's Optical and Cosmological Work
Niccolò Guicciardini
Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 74, No. 1 (January 2013), pp. 45-67
Documents Newton's analogy between the prismatic spectrum and the musical scale. Mathematical
connexions between Kepler, Astronomy, harmonics and waves, and suggests comparisons between
waves of sound and waves of light. Identifies steps of the scale with steps of colours of the rainbow.
-----
Note – this may possibly be the origin of connexions of colour with the scale, so the chromatic scale.
Visible light occupies near an octave of frequencies/wavelengths so making the analogy carries sense
in the idea, but of course these colours were colours relating to measurement rather than that which
are to be seen with the eyes.
-----
(59) 2016
The Influence of Unequal Temperament on Chopin’s Piano Works
Michèle Duguay - A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of
Arts in Music Theory Music Theory Area Department of Music Research Schulich School of Music, McGill
University Montréal, Canada
Seminal thesis.
“Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) composed in the first half of the 19th century, when pianos were tuned
in unequal temperaments: different keys displayed subtly different intervallic structures. It is well
known that he composed at the piano, making it likely that he took into account the instrument's
tuning when writing music. In one of the rare studies of the issue, Miller (2001) discusses the
influence of unequal temperaments on Chopin?s mazurkas by examining its impact on melodic and
harmonic features. Jonathan Bellman (2005) also describes how unequal temperaments can alter
performances of Chopin?s music by enhancing the differentiation between keys. . . . The only
reference to piano tuning penned by Chopin, written towards the end of his life in a letter to his friend
Julian Fontana, betrays the crucial role temperament held for him. He was distressed and concerned he
could no longer find an instrument tuned to his taste. Scholars and performers alike often presume that
Chopin and his contemporaries were playing on equally-tempered keyboard instruments, and this
assumption might explain why the relationship between 19th-century composition and keyboard
temperament has often been overlooked in academic literature. ...
Chopin is a particularly appropriate case study because he composed and improvised at the piano,
making it likely that he was influenced by the subtle differences in intervallic structure between
tonalities. Friends and pupils describe how the choice of a key was important for him, both in
composing, improvising, and performing . . . ”
References Hammerwood Park YouTube recordings in unequal temperament.

-----
NOTE - However, Chapter 3 focuses on errors of intonation rather than expression of emotion.
-----
39
MOZART
Organ
(60) 1946
Mozart and the Organ (Concluded)
A. Hyatt King
The Musical Times, Vol. 87, No. 1237 (Mar., 1946), pp. 76-78
(61) 1947
Mozart's Works for Mechanical Organ: Their Background and Significance
A. Hyatt King
The Musical Times, Vol. 88, No. 1247 (Jan., 1947), pp. 11-14
“Certain it is that though the two largest have survived only in four hand keyboard arrangements the
piano duet is most unsuitable , as it precludes clear enunciation of the complex part writing and lack
the varied brilliance of effect which Mozart seem to have had in mind when composing even though
he knew it was unattainable on mechanically operated pipes”
------
Note: Generally a most helpful analysis of the works but this view expressed results from not having
been privileged to auditioning a Meantone temperament in which everything desired of the piece is
encoded within interaction with the tuning.
------
(62) 1991
The Hermeneutics of Lament: A Neglected Paradigm in a Mozartian 'Trauermusik'
Laurence Dreyfus
Music Analysis, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Oct., 1991), pp. 329-343
Analysis of techniques expressive of lament in K594. Work cited by Annette Richards for identifying
the status of the piece as a great work of art precisely because it has eclipsed and escaped its
occasional function in Deym's museum. Puzzlement that “many writers have been struck that such
profound music should have been composed for a mechanical medium, which, given the spectacle of a
machine inside an imitation mausoleum emitting 'an exquisite funeral piece', can only have trivialized
the grave melancholy inscribed so remarkably within this work”
-----
Note: One wonders how influenced this author would be by looking at the piece specifically within the
Meantone context.
-----
(63) 1999
Automatic Genius: Mozart and the Mechanical Sublime
Annette Richards
Music & Letters, Vol. 80, No. 3 (Aug., 1999), pp. 366-389
Seminal work and obligatory reading.
Analyses reasons for academic neglect of K594 and K608. Confusion with K616 written for a small
toy instrument with small pipes. Challenges perception by Dreyfus and others before of
incompatibility of a great work with a mechanical instrument trivializing death in an exhibition -
perceived as frivolous. “But is this apparent disjunction-so central to modern readings, and critical
neglect, of K.608-not in fact some sort of misreading? Could not the interplay between this particular
musical discourse and its intriguing cultural context be reconfigured, so that K.608 would appear
remarkably suited both to the circumstances of its original performance, and, even if transcending it
in significant ways, to the mechanical medium for which it was conceived? The blithe dismissal of
40
machines by most modern critics is frankly too easy and by no means as safe as it has been presented.
”
In footnotes documents eyewitness accounts of sound as of flutes and bassoon, and the timing of
performance at 8 minutes.
Examines the Vaucanson fake duck and examines issues of roboticism. “The mechanical productions
of such fake artists devoid of creative genius, then, owe nothing to a spontaneous cross-pollination of
thoughts, ideas and judgement, but everything to a mindless reiteration of their already limited mental
resources. ”
Much of current relevance to Artificial Intelligence and roboticism
Analyses the greatness of the Fantasias. Access to the sublime, transcendence through mathematics,
repeated contemplation and perfection in harmony with its function within the exhibition.
(64) 2002
Mozart and the Organ: Piping Time
Katalin Komlós
The Musical Times, Vol. 143, No. 1880 (Autumn, 2002), pp. 59-61
Examines Mozart's relationship with the Organ and lack of written work, identifying it mainly as an
instrument for improvisation. “It seems, nevertheless, that his 'organ-like' extemporisations were
called forth by the clavichord, if not actually the organ.” Mentions playing of Silbermann organs in
Strasborg 1778. Comments upon Mozart's potential for creative use of discord improvising with Bb in
pedal as bass to playing in B major on manuals.
-----
Note – possible support for Silbermann temperament to have been favoured, possibly 1/6th Comma
Meantone, despite much reception of Mozart keyboard works being through the medium of ¼ Comma
Meantone
-----
Clavichord, Harpsichord, Piano
(65) 1941
Mozart and the "Clavier"
Nathan Broder
The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Oct., 1941), pp. 422-432
(66) 1985
From Harpsichord to Pianoforte: A Chronology and Commentary
Howard Schott
Early Music, Vol. 13, No. 1, The Early Piano II (Feb., 1985), pp. 28-38
(67) 1992
Mozart's Keyboard Instruments
Richard Maunder
Early Music, Vol. 20, No. 2, Performing Mozart's Music III (May, 1992), pp. 207+209-212+214-21
Identifies changeover from harpsichord to piano mid 1770s
(68) 1997
Mozart and the Pianos of Gabriel Anton Walter
Michael Latcham
Early Music, Vol. 25, No. 3 (Aug., 1997), pp. 382-400
41
(69) 2000
Humor in the Piano Sonatas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Yoon-Sook Choi - A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Musical Arts University of Washington “However, even though perceiving wit in instrumental
music is not easy, if performers and listeners understand its definition, it is not difficult for them to
bring out or recognize wit. The author intended to bring out the subtle along with the explicit humor in
Mozart's piano sonatas so that musicians and music lovers might apprehend the humorous language of
Mozart and savor his genuine jests. ”
-----
Note: It's to be regretted that the researcher was denied temperament effects within his toolbox of
analysis
-----
(70) 2002
Mozart without the Pedal?
Paul Badura-Skoda
The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 55 (Apr., 2002), pp. 332-350
Examines the interaction of original instruments upon how Mozart's piano music might be played and
where the sustaining pedal might be used.
----
Note: On account of more defined resonance arriving from harmonic tuning, the scale of
temperaments with perfect thirds or perfect fifths, sustaining pedal can have much less of a blurring
effect than on an ET tuned modern piano. Analysis of Spectra, 2006 Analysis of Spectra in J. S. Bach's
Prelude and Fugue, BWV 552 Timothy Corlis and 1987 Tuning: At the Crossroads
Wendy Carlos, relevant.
-----
(71) 2009
Mozart's Words, Mozart's Music: Untangling an Encounter with a Fortepiano and its
Remarkable Consequences
JOHN IRVING
Austrian Studies, Vol. 17, Words and Music (2009), pp. 29-42
42
Faith, devotion, Freemasonry and expression of emotion in Mozart's music
(72) 1930
Freemasons' Music in the Eighteenth Century
Paul Nettl and Theodore Baker
The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Apr., 1930), pp. 191-198
(73) 1953
THE RATIONALITY OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY MUSICAL CLASSICISM A Study of the
Relationships between the Rationalistic Philosophies of Descartes, Spinoza and
Leibniz and the Classicism of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven
IRA CUSTER SINGLETON - Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor
of Philosophy in the School of Education of New York University
(74) 1976
Mozart and Freemasonry
Katharine Thomson
Music & Letters, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Jan., 1976), pp. 25-46
Important introduction. Concludes “But the question how far, and in what way, these beliefs are
expressed in Mozart's work as a whole has not yet been fully explored”
------
Note: In terms of what hasn't been fully explored the subject requires attention to tuning to reveal
what is to us unseen, unheard, encoded to bare the soul.
------
(75) 1985
Mozart's Zoroastran Riddles
Maynard Solomon
American Imago, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Winter, 1985), pp. 345-369
-----
Note - Indicative of 18th century pastimes and mental agility and access to the obscure possibly
beyond our imagination.
-----
(76) 1993
KEATS'S FANTASIA: THE "ODE ON MELANCHOLY," SONATA FORM AND MOZART'S
"FANTASIA IN C MINOR" FOR PIANO, K. 475
Michael G. Becker
The Comparatist, Vol. 17 (MAY 1993), pp. 18-37
-----
Note – no reference to temperament, which might have assisted this study
-----
(77) 1995
Light Dispels Darkness: Gender, Ritual, and Society in Mozart's "The Magic Flute"
Priscilla Stuckey
Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Spring, 1995), pp. 5-39
43
(78) 1998
THE DEMONIC PIANO: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE DEVIL AND PIANO
LITERATURE
Debbie Ann Masloski - A MAJOR DOCUMENT SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC IN PARTIAL
FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS for the degree DOCTOR OF MUSIC Field of piano
performance Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois p63-“In 1776 the first volume of Dr. Charles
Burney’s General History of Music made the following statement: “Music is an innocent luxury,
unnecessary, indeed, to our existence, but a great improvement and gratification of the sense of
hearing” This is quite a contrast from Bach's idea that all music should be used to glorify God. These
greatly contrasting statements illustrate the fundamental changes in thought which had taken place in
the eighteenth century. “The upshot of this convergence of (rational) musical theory and musical
practice was the promotion of a demythicized concept of music. To the rational man, music could
portray evil, but it no longer really embodied evil in a metaphysical sense.””
p73 “Mozart's first keyboard work in A minor, K. 310, is dark and tragic. It may have been written for
his performances in the Parisian salons and follows in the tradition of fiery keyboard writing that
Schobert and others had pursued in Paris. Einstein says of this work: “The key of A minor-and
sometimes A major as well-is for Mozart the key of despair. No trace of ‘sociability’ is left in this
sonata. It is a most personal expression: one may look in vain in all the works of other composers of
this period for anything similar. And it is easy to understand the astonishment of M. de Saint-Foix
over the fact that the public of Paris, the city of criticism, where the work appeared in 1782, greeted it
silently and without comment.’” Mozart’s only other sonata in minor is the Sonata in C minor, K.457,
published together with the Fantasia in C minor, K. 475. The pairing implies that Mozart intended a
continuous performance, with the formal structure of the sonata resolving the tensions of the irregular
and passionate fantasy, known for its wide ranging modulations and its unpredictable structure and
textures.” One of the most forceful sonatas that Mozart composed, it is often referred to as
Beethovenian - and it did influence Beethoven. Einstein says of the Sonata in C minor: “it is clear
that it represents a moment of great agitation that could no longer be expressed in the fatalistic A
minor of the Paris sonate, but required the pathetic C minor that was to be Beethoven's favorite key
for the expression of similar emotions. Indeed it must be stated that this very sonata contributed a
great deal toward making Beethovenisme possible.” The form is taut with driving triadic themes.
“This Fantasy, which gives us the truest picture of Mozart's mighty power o f improvisation-his ability
to indulge in the greatest freedom and boldness of imagination, the most extreme contrast of ideas, the
most uninhibited variety of lyric and virtuoso elements, while yet preserving structural logic-this work
is so rich that it threatens to eclipse the sonata, without actually doing so.”33 Another minor work
remarkable for its chromaticism and emotional content is the Adagio in B minor. Mozart rarely used
this key and approached it with caution. Beethoven described it as a “black key.” One of the most
despairing of all Mozart’s works, the Adagio in B minor is characterized by suspensions and
diminished sevenths. ”
(79) 2000
Celestial Lodge Above: The Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem as a Religious Symbol in
Freemasonry
Guy L. Beck
Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Vol. 4, No. 1 (October 2000), pp. 28-51
Numbers - This Celestial Jerusalem, elevated as on a cloud, has twelve gates, three on each side with a
Tree in the middle that bears twelve different sorts of fruits.
(80) 2000
Music in Eighteenth Century Britain
Edited by David Wyn Jones – Articles on Freemasonry and Music in London (Simon McVeigh), and
44
the Papers of C I Latrobe – New Light on Musicians, Music and the Christian Family in Late
Eighteenth-Century England (Rachel Cowgill)
Essential reading
(81) 2002
THE ROLE OF THE GOLDEN SECTION IN THE TEMPORAL DIMENSION OF SELECTED
PIANO SONATA MOVEMENTS BY MOZART
Aleksandra Koerbler - A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Music Theory University of Regina
Saskatchewan Analyses piano sonatas and provides signposts for further areas to look for and research
in the light of hearing temperament dependant passages.
(82) 2004
The Theater of the Crypt: Eighteenth Century Stagings of the
Incorporated Body
Carolyn Shapiro
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Performance Studies New York University May 2004
Essential reading for both context and specifics. Inter alia p. 249- “German Freemasonry and
Masonic Opera”. A Masonic foothold developed within a context of what enlightened Protestants saw
as the predominant superstition of the Catholic church and aristocracy.
p256 “By the time Mozart completed his initiation into the three degrees of Freemasonry in 1785 he
had been circulating for more than ten years through a Masonic network by which he acquired a chain
of Illuminati patronage from Mannheim, to Paris, to Prague, among other cities. Even before he was a
Mason, Mozart was composing Masonic music, that is, music to accompany Masonic ceremonies and
funerals. One among many examples of this Masonic music is "Oh heiliges Band" (K.148) of 1772,
which follows rules for Masonic ceremonial music as specified by the influential aesthetic theorist and
advocate of native opera Johann Adolf Scheibe . ”
p274. Series of parallel thirds or sixths appear in the compositions
p275. Woodwind instruments were of importance in music, specifically clarinets and basset horns,
known as “columns of harmony”. . . . “Masonic acceptance of death as part of their foundation for
Enlightenment. . . . Lower woodwind such as basset horns express a deep human sorrow.”
-----
Note: p256 This implies that it's not unreasonable to assert a Masonic rebirth attribute to piano
Sonata 2, K280 composed in 1774
p274 Thirds made sweeter in meantone temperament
p275 The use of a woodwind sound in the bass adds to the completeness of concept of the Mechanical
Clock fantasias which they were complementing the visual senses in Deym's exhibition.
-----
(83) 2009
"May Such Great Effort Not Be in Vain”: Mozart on Divine Love, Judgment, and
Retribution
Steffen Lösel
The Journal of Religion, Vol. 89, No. 3 (July 2009), pp. 361-400
Considers Don Giovanni. Documents Mozart entering True Harmony Lodge in 1784 and his Catholic
45
faith. Identifies Masonic view of death as being crucial to Mozart's faith. “Death is the key which
unlocks the door to our true happiness. I never lie down at night without reflecting that, young as I am,
I may not live to see another day.” Identifies Mozart as being devout. “William Stafford has
demonstrated conclusively that the widespread belief that Mozart lived a sexually promiscuous life is
nothing but a myth.” Mozart refers to certain people as having neither faith nor religion.
“And I thank God for graciously granting me the opportunity (you know what I mean) of learning that
death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness.”
Concludes inter-alia that in the Requiem Mozart employs a number of compositional techniques to
heighten the contrast between the sinners' dread of the last judgment and their hope of salvation.
-------
Note – When heard in Meantone aspects of the piano sonatas may offer parallel interpretation
The quotation regarding death unlocking true happiness is the initiation of the rite of the 3rd degree
masonic ceremony in which the initiate is put to death, buried in the grave and is born again.
------
(84) 2011
"That Grand Primeval and Fundamental Religion": The Transformation of
Freemasonry into a British Imperial Cult
VAHID FOZDAR
Journal of World History, Vol. 22, No. 3 (September 2011), pp. 493-525
(85) 2012
"Making Degenerates into Men" by Doing Shots, Breaking Plates, and Embracing
Brothers in Eighteenth-Century Freemasonry
Heather Morrison
Journal of Social History, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Fall 2012), pp. 48-65 Viennese freemasonry of the 1780s.
Bacchanalian. It was precisely the mixture of the elevated and the base that made freemasonry
appealing.
(86) 2012
MASONIC SYMBOLISM, THE ASCENT TO MASTER MASON, AND WOLFGANG
AMADEUS MOZART’S MAURERISCHE TRAUERMUSIK, K. 477
by DANIEL JOHN SAUNDERS
- A THESIS Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music in the
Department of Music in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA
Essential reading. Documents Mozart's devotion, attitude to death and the sacred. p8. “When trying
to analyze symbols of Freemasonry, the initiates of the Order often find it quite difficult to speak
directly about the actual and true meanings of the Brotherhood’s symbols. In some cases, critical
authors who analyze the symbols, who are not Freemasons, have collected information from initiates
in order to bolster their analysis. The non-Mason authors seem to lack the actual experiences of the
various rituals, and one could argue they lack a true understanding of the emotional aspects of
initiation into the Brotherhood. Yet other researchers, who are indeed Freemasons, seem to present an
analysis that is so deliberately complex that it seems to obfuscate the true meaning of the fraternity. ”
“Mozart's Masonic symbolism can be just as simple as the symbols on which they are based if one is
familiar with the teachings of the Brotherhood. The complexity of the Masonic symbol is not in the
knowing of its meaning but in the understanding of its purpose for the life of the individual brother. ”
p9. “One of the principal tenets of Freemasonry is the idea of moving from darkness into light.
Following the actual terms of the ritual, the Light is a strong Masonic symbol because it characterizes
46
the initiation. In each of the three initiation ceremonies, the overarching symbol is that of Light. . . .
Because of Mozart’s belief in the ideals of Freemasonry, he was convinced of the power of the
threefold symbol and used it freely. His first use of the number three can be seen with the three
“points”: the points being the symbols of the key signature at the beginning of a score. While the key
is slightly restrictive, the key signature containing three sharps or three flats is a common thread
through Mozart's music; ”
p10. “Another use of the number three is in the intervals of thirds. The building of thirds on top of
each other, whether it is major or minor, creates a perfect chord and gives a sense of serene harmony
that has been recognized by mathematicians like Pythagoras who first analyzed their intervallic
relation. Mozart knew that the third, in the form of a chord or interval expressed in a melodic line, was
a symbol that bore the feeling of harmony. ”
“The symbol of time cannot give rise to a specific musical ideal since it is immaterial, and in that
respect, identical to the music itself. ”
p14 “One of the tenants [sic] of Freemasonry is the belief in a divine spirit; the ascent of the musical
line is analogous to a soul rising to heaven. . . . .
. . . . concept of initiation. The initiation ritual is not the ending of a preparatory journey, but the
beginning of a new journey, with new ideals. The path does not end when the initiation is over: on the
contrary, it is just beginning. ”
p18. “The initiate must “die” in order to be reborn”
pp29-32 The legend of Hiram Abiff. 3rd Degree rite. “The ritual also teaches the initiate the fidelity to
one's word and the brevity of life.”
pp 49-51 Identifiable symbols
(87) 2013
A PERFORMER’S ANALYSIS OF FANTASIA IN C MINOR, K. 475 AND SONATA IN C
MINOR, K. 457 BY WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART, AND SELECTED ETUDES, NOS. 1,
4, 10, AND 16 BY GYORGY SANDOR LIGETI
by Kyoung Ah Mun - Presented to the Advanced Studies Committee of the School of Church Music
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Fort Worth, Texas In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree Doctor of Musical Arts
-
(88) 2016
MOZART’S DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE: A KINGDOM OF NOTES AND NUMBERS
by Daemon Garafallo
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters In Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton,
FL Of general relevance but in relation to temperament p8 “That Wolfgang was proficient in math is
well known and this needn’t be thought as being separate from music. In the Middle Ages
mathematics, music, theology, and astronomy were treated as one discipline” - relevant to criticisms of
Kellner's temperament contradicting De Veroli and supports Kellner's approach (46) above.
47
AFTER MOZART
(89) 1970
Beethoven's Pianos versus His Piano Ideals
William S. Newman
(90) 1982
Late Beethoven and Early Pianos
Malcolm Bilson
Early Music, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Oct., 1982), pp. 517-519
(91) 1992
Beethoven's Broadwood
Kenneth Mobbs and Michael Latcham
Early Music, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Aug., 1992), p. 527
(92) 2000
Chopin and His Imitators: Notated Emulations of the "True Style" of Performance
Jonathan Bellman
19th-Century Music, Vol. 24, No. 2, Special Issue: Nineteenth-Century Pianism (Autumn, 2000), pp. 149-
160
(93) 2010
THROUGH THE LENS OF FREEMASONRY: THE INFLUENCE OF ANCIENT ESOTERIC
THOUGHT ON BEETHOVEN’S LATE WORKS
BRIAN S. GAONA DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Musical Arts in Music with a concentration in Performance and Literature in the Graduate
College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010 Explains Beethoven's membership of
Freemasonry is rather more obscure on account of ongoing suppression of the organisation. Identifies
more Hindu and Sufi influences, looks at logarithmic subdivisions in the Arietta Op 111in terms of the
manipulation of time itself. Entry in Beethoven's day-book “A drop of water hollows a genuine stone”
as an analogy and in regard to tonal oscillation. Removal of temporal markers takes it outside of time.
(94) 2013
Rediscovering Forgotten Meanings in Schubert’s Song Cycles: Towards an
Understanding of Well Temperament as an Expressive Device In the Nineteenth-Century
Lied
Angeline Ashley Smith Van Evera
A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of The Benjamin T. Rome School of Music Of The
Catholic University of America In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of
Philosophy Washington, D.C. 2012
“Twentieth-century equal temperament eliminates the meanings and emotions that manifest through
what I call Temperaturfarben, or timbral colors created through the uniquely sized intervals in well
temperament. This dissertation presents evidence that Schubert’s songs were conceived in well
temperament and argues that Schubert exploited the colors of keys and chords to create musico-
literary tools. Examining Schubert’s use of Temperaturfarben provides us with new insights into his
interpretation of the song cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, and provides insight into
whether or not Schwanengesang constitutes a cycle.
48
Past scholars have misinterpreted endorsements of equal temperament as proof that the system was in
use; however, even if Spohr, Hummel, and others wrote in favor of equal temperament, their writings
also indicate that equal temperament was still an idea and not a practice. . . .
. . . the knowledge that well temperament was used during Schubert’s lifetime opens up new ways to
examine the specific meanings that composers assign to keys instead of viewing keys as having
inherited meaning. ”
“The tuning software Little Miss Scale Oven, a scale analysis and editing tool, allows me to “bake” a
temperament in a software synthesizer and set the temperament for scores played through the music
notation software Sibelius. By inputting Schubert’s Lieder into Sibelius and playing them either
through my computer or my Roland digital piano, I am able to hear Schubert’s compositions in well
temperament. ”
“listened to historical recordings from the beginning of the twentieth century, which were produced at
a time before truly equal temperament was achievable. Although the recording quality of these
recordings is poor, they still embody some of the characteristics of well temperament.”
RECORDINGS
Six Degrees Of Tonality - A Well-tempered Piano / Katahn
Release Date: 04/24/2001 Label: Gasparo Records Catalog #: 344 Spars Code: DDD
Composer: Scarlatti, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Grieg Performer: Enid Katahn
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=11326
Beethoven in the Temperaments by Enid Katahn

Beethoven's most extreme compositions have their harmonic color restored when performed on a
modern concert piano tuned in 18th century temperament
Genre: Classical: Beethoven Release Date: 1997
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/enidkatahn2
Chopin 24 Preludes in Unequal Temperament Michele D'Ambrosio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdsFLIo9l88
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A34K-fj5nHs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpqrynlohR4
49
APPENDIX IV
SCHUBART'S ATTRIBUTION OF CHARACTERISTICS TO KEYS 1787
C Major
Completely Pure. Its character is: innocence, simplicity, naïvety, children's talk.
C Minor
Declaration of love and at the same time the lament of unhappy love. All languishing, longing, sighing of the
love-sick soul lies in this key.
Db Major
A leering key, degenerating into grief and rapture. It cannot laugh, but it can smile; it cannot howl, but it can at
least grimace its crying.--Consequently only unusual characters and feelings can be brought out in this key.
C# Minor
Penitential lamentation, intimate conversation with God, the friend and help-meet of life; sighs of disappointed
friendship and love lie in its radius.
D Major
The key of triumph, of Hallejuahs, of war-cries, of victory-rejoicing. Thus, the inviting symphonies, the marches,
holiday songs and heaven-rejoicing choruses are set in this key.
D Minor - Melancholy womanliness, the spleen and humours brood.
Eb Major
D# Minor
Feelings of the anxiety of the soul's deepest distress, of brooding despair, of blackest depresssion, of the most
gloomy condition of the soul. Every fear, every hesitation of the shuddering heart, breathes out of horrible D#
E Major - Noisy shouts of joy, laughing pleasure and not yet complete, full delight lies in E Major.
E minor
Naïve, womanly innocent declaration of love, lament without grumbling; sighs accompanied by few tears; this
key speaks of the imminent hope of resolving in the pure happiness of C major.
F Major - Complaisance & Calm.
F Minor - Deep depression, funereal lament, groans of misery and longing for the grave.
F# Major
Triumph over difficulty, free sigh of relief utered when hurdles are surmounted; echo of a soul which has fiercely
struggled and finally conquered lies in all uses of this key.
F# Minor
A gloomy key: it tugs at passion as a dog biting a dress. Resentment and discontent are its language.
G Major
Everything rustic, idyllic and lyrical, every calm and satisfied passion, every tender gratitude for true friendship
and faithful love,--in a word every gentle and peaceful emotion of the heart is correctly expressed by this key.
G Minor
Discontent, uneasiness, worry about a failed scheme; bad-tempered gnashing of teeth; in a word: resentment
and dislike.
Ab Major - Key of the grave. Death, grave, putrefaction, judgment, eternity lie in its radius.
Ab Minor
Grumbler, heart squeezed until it suffocates; wailing lament, difficult struggle; in a word, the color of this key is
everything struggling with difficulty.
A Major
This key includes declarations of innocent love, satisfaction with one's state of affairs; hope of seeing one's
beloved again when parting; youthful cheerfulness and trust in God.
A minor - Pious womanliness and tenderness of character.
Bb Major - Cheerful love, clear conscience, hope aspiration for a better world.
Bb minor
pleasant countenance. Mocking God and the world; discontented with itself and with everything; preparation for
suicide sounds in this key.
B Major
Strongly coloured, announcing wild passions, composed from the most glaring colours. Anger, rage, jealousy,
fury, despair and every burden of the heart lies in its sphere.
B Minor
This is as it were the key of patience, of calm awaiting ones's fate and of submission to divine dispensation.
(Translated Rita Steblin (30))
50
NOTES FOR LIVE PRESENTATION
51
Beethoven Op 39 Prelude 2
SCHUBART'S 1787 descriptions of keys.
C Major - Completely Pure. Its character is: innocence, simplicity, naïvety, children's talk.
G Major
Everything rustic, idyllic and lyrical, every calm and satisfied passion, every tender gratitude for true friendship and
faithful love,--in a word every gentle and peaceful emotion of the heart is correctly expressed by this key.
D Major
A Major
This key includes declarations of innocent love, satisfaction with one's state of affairs; hope of seeing one's beloved
again when parting; youthful cheerfulness and trust in God.
B Major
Strongly coloured, announcing wild passions, composed from the most glaring coulors. Anger, rage, jealousy, fury,
despair and every burden of the heart lies in its sphere.
F# Major
Db Major
A leering key, degenerating into grief and rapture. It cannot laugh, but it can smile; it cannot howl, but it can at least
grimace its crying.--Consequently only unusual characters and feelings can be brought out in this key.
Eb Major - The key of love, of devotion, of intimate conversation with God.
G Major
D Major
A Major
This key includes declarations of innocent love, satisfaction with one's state of affairs; hope of seeing one's beloved
again when parting; youthful cheerfulness and trust in God.
B Major
Strongly coloured, announcing wild passions, composed from the most glaring coulors. Anger, rage, jealousy, fury,
despair and every burden of the heart lies in its sphere.
F# Major
Db Major
Ab Major
Key of the grave. Death, grave, putrefaction, judgment, eternity lie in its radius.
Eb Major
Bb Major
Cheerful love, clear conscience, hope aspiration for a better world.
F Major
Complaisance & Calm.
Ab Major - Key of the grave. Death, grave, putrefaction, judgment, - - - - eternity lie in its radius.
52
53
LIVE PRESENTATION SUMMARY HANDOUTS
54

Open with Couperin Kyrie from Mass for Convents. Registered as “Grand Jeu” in Meantone
------------------------
SUMMARY
------------------------
In this paper we're going to be looking primarily at authenticity, the need for it, and the meanings of
which we're oblivious on account of the musical equivalent for instance expecting Google Translate to
give us a translation into English from German having set the translator to Chinese instead.
As musicians as well as non-musicians, we might be unaware that there are problems with the musical
scale, known for over 2000 years, but assumed settled by our assumed superiority of modern
knowledge and swept under the carpet accordingly. We're going to hear those problems hear at first
hand.
There was a legend that music conveyed different emotions granted by the use of particular keys.
Einstein was not the first to notice Mozart's specialised use of keys, and likewise Beethoven, Schubert,
Chopin and Liszt were all careful in their choice of key to match different moods. We're going to
examine that legend and experience for ourselves how the 18th and 19th century solutions to the scale
problem gave rise to those experiences, only to be swept away in the 20th century.
We're then going to visit the infamous context of two of Mozart's more unusual compositions and find
how without having done so, without understanding of the context, the limitations of the original
instrument for which it was composed and its tuning, which we will find Mozart deliberately
exploited, modern performance however grand falls short and fails to convey the meanings intended
and celebrated in the time of Mozart.
We're then going to examine works by Bach, presenting them in a manner unthinkable for 150 years,
and how the purity of scales, today with pure thirds in Meantone, or perfect fifths in other systems,
leads to different playing and pedalling techniques through Beethoven to Chopin. We're going to
examine the Piano Sonatas by Haydn and Mozart in the tuning known to be used in the 18th century,
and find surprising revelations relevant capable of bringing rebirth of interest in both Music and
Religion in the 21st century, even their survival in the light of possible cultural collapse.
55
SCHUBART'S ATTRIBUTION OF CHARACTERISTICS TO KEYS 1787
C Major
Completely Pure. Its character is: innocence, simplicity, naïvety, children's talk.
C Minor
Declaration of love and at the same time the lament of unhappy love. All languishing, longing, sighing of the
love-sick soul lies in this key.
Db Major
C# Minor
Penitential lamentation, intimate conversation with God, the friend and help-meet of life; sighs of disappointed
friendship and love lie in its radius.
D Major
D Minor - Melancholy womanliness, the spleen and humours brood.
Eb Major
D# Minor
Feelings of the anxiety of the soul's deepest distress, of brooding despair, of blackest depresssion, of the most
gloomy condition of the soul. Every fear, every hesitation of the shuddering heart, breathes out of horrible D#
E minor
Naïve, womanly innocent declaration of love, lament without grumbling; sighs accompanied by few tears; this
key speaks of the imminent hope of resolving in the pure happiness of C major.
F Minor - Deep depression, funereal lament, groans of misery and longing for the grave.
F# Major
F# Minor
A gloomy key: it tugs at passion as a dog biting a dress. Resentment and discontent are its language.
G Major
G Minor
Discontent, uneasiness, worry about a failed scheme; bad-tempered gnashing of teeth; in a word: resentment
and dislike.
Ab Minor
Grumbler, heart squeezed until it suffocates; wailing lament, difficult struggle; in a word, the color of this key is
everything struggling with difficulty.
A Major
This key includes declarations of innocent love, satisfaction with one's state of affairs; hope of seeing one's
beloved again when parting; youthful cheerfulness and trust in God.
A minor - Pious womanliness and tenderness of character.
Bb minor
pleasant countenance. Mocking God and the world; discontented with itself and with everything; preparation for
suicide sounds in this key.
B Major
Strongly coloured, announcing wild passions, composed from the most glaring colours. Anger, rage, jealousy,
fury, despair and every burden of the heart lies in its sphere.
B Minor
This is as it were the key of patience, of calm awaiting ones's fate and of submission to divine dispensation.
56
Jong-Gyung Park - pianist
I have always been fascinated about why, when, and how a composer set about writing the music
that they did, and began to see pianos tuned in different temperaments at Hammerwood Park
where David Pinnegar is passionate about bringing ancient tunings to the modern world. Today, I
am excited to be presenting the project, about keyboard tuning for the 18th century, concerning
Haydn and Mozart whom would have worked with these tunings to imagine so many of the
historic compositions we love to hear and play in the 21st century.
Jong-Gyung Park has firmly established herself as one of the leading pianists of her generation.
She made her orchestral debut at the age of thirteen with Boston Symphony Orchestra and has
since appeared with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, and
others. Jong-Gyung has performed across the UK and abroad: in North and South America,
Germany, Russia, Italy, and Netherlands. She has also received numerous international
awards including Bronze medals at the Sviatoslav Richter International piano competition, the
Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Masters Competition in Israel and the Ferruccio Busoni
International Piano Competition in Italy where she also received Busoni Prize for commissioned
work and Laureate at the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Belgium.
jgpcypher@yahoo.com
Alexandra Kremakova - pianist, harpsichordist and organist.

As a performer I firmly believe that understanding music is the key to expressive interpretation. So to
say, one needs to know a language in order to convey meaning when speaking it. Of course the
'meaning' in music not as evident as that of language but we must do all we can to get as close to
understanding it as possible. Being aware of the sound specifications of the instrument the composer
of a piece of music had in mind when writing it can throw light in the direction. The tuning of the
instrument is a subtle detail that often goes unnoticed but it is nevertheless an inseparable part of that
sound.
It has been a great pleasure to work with David Pinnegar on his quest of redeeming historical tunings
in Western keyboard music and to play on his collection splendid of instruments at Hammerwood
park, and I feel privileged to be here today.
Alexandra Kremakova is a London-based pianist and harpsichordist with an interest in performance

practice. She is the recipient of a number of awards including the Trinity Laban Conservatoire Soloist
Competition in 2013. Alexandra performs regularly as a soloist and as well as a member of period
instrument ensemble Bellot.
alexandra.kremakova@gmail.com
David Pinnegar
Curator, Hammerwood Park, physicist, piano tuner, researcher and organologist.
After studying piano, French horn, organ and opera, he left the performing realm to study physics at
Imperial College, London. In 1982 he then took on the restoration of Hammerwood Park, East
Grinstead, left derelict by Led Zeppelin, opening it to the public and promoting both classical concerts
and musicians. This led him into many areas associated with the architect of the house, Benjamin
Latrobe; research of classical architecture, its origins and philosophy; Latrobe's musical realm, and
tuning pianos for the promotion of concerts. In addition to restoring Hammerwood, he tunes for
musicians and concerts, both locally and internationally.
antespam@gmail.com
We hope that you might like to visit Hammerwood Park for Concerts or Guided Tours or even to play or
study the instruments and tunings. www.hammerwoodpark.co.uk
57
FINDINGS
1 Restoration of the Mozart Fantasias for Mechanical clock to the soundscape of Meantone
Tuning brings forward Mozart's genius of composition for the context and setting in
which the music was to be heard, and conveys in simplicity all emotions to perfection.
2 Bach's 48 Preludes and Fugues for Well Tempered Clavier can be played on a Meantone
instrument in which context played sensitively they convey the emotional landscape
documented by Schubart. They may well not have been written to exploit equal
temperament at all and perhaps not even a “Well Temperament” which has to date been
the focus of study.
3 Dissonances were intended as part of the emotional content, part of the musical landscape of
suffering and pain in a devotional context. These were expressed well in Meantone and
contrast with the sweet harmony the temperament provides also. Good circulating
temperaments in which all keys are playable hint at least to sadness as appropriate but
equal temperament is unable to provide any such clues written into the music.
4 Restoration of the Mozart sonatas to the Meantone reveals messages of bringing darkness into
light which are central to the core of Mozart's beliefs.
5 Haydn's Sonatas contain emotional content which appears to align with concepts of Mozart
but more research is needed in this direction. His music is sterilised in modern
performance in modern Equal Temperament, not understood and not taken as seriously as
it should.
6 Compatibility with the Baroque tuning puts Mozart firmly within the context of the Baroque
but the sound is reflected in Baudelaire's definition “Romanticism is precisely situation
neither in choice of subject, nor exact truth, but in the way of feeling.” The experience of
the tuning makes perfect sense of Schubart's contemporary description of key experences
of 1787.
CONCLUSIONS
- Ubiquitous use of modern Equal Temperament tuning has served us badly, obscuring the sound
and the meaning of the classical music we've heard examples of, leading to wrong
interpretations and muddled ideas;
- Having restored the tuning, and the emotional language available written into and encoded within
the music we hear communicated meaning of which we hadn't dreamt before;
- The loss of such tunings from the concert hall, and of which here we've heard and experienced
one, has lead to the deadening of music and its perceived relevance as a language, just as I
mportant in schools as the teaching of English Literature, and at least French if not Latin or
German in their relevance to the roots of our own flavour of communication;
- As a medium of empathetic communication, music is an important force for healing and in the
vanguard against an increasingly mechanically driven, even psychopathic, world.
- The persistent refusal to allow performers to break away from modern Equal Temperament would
be considered by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and their devout Moravian, Masonic and
Catholic friends alike to be as much a crime were a jobsworth to have prevented Jesus from
raising Lazarus from the Dead. The continued persistence (38) of Equal Temperament on the
concert platform, in broadcasts and recordings is a crime against music and human
understanding itself. (43)(56)(59)(69)
- For the promotion of renewed understanding of music the classical composers require renewed
access to historical and harmonic resonance based tunings on Concert Hall instruments,
whether based on perfect thirds or perfect 5ths. Music requires the restoration of its
harmonics of intrinsic vibrations, the sound of its language in which it was written for it to
properly convey meaning, emotion, and to live again, reborn to flourish.
·
58
It is therefore to the considerable credit to the Friends of the London Mozart Players
that I have been invited to deliver this paper today.
59
THE ARITHMETIC OF THE MUSICAL SCALE
L. H. BEDFORD Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Vol. 104, No. 4977 (11TH MAY, 1956)
“About the year 500 b.c., Pythagoras gave a clear arithmetical basis to the musical scale. In 1885 Ellis
and Hipkin (1) were able to collect and tabulate on a numerical basis some 130 musical scales from all
sources. From 1850 onwards the Even Tempered scale for keyed instruments gained ascendancy
over all previous temperaments, a situation which has become so far consolidated that scarcely any
living person has had the opportunity of hearing anything else. In these circumstances, it may well
be asked what more remains to be said and what justification exists for a paper of the present title? To
this highly reasonable question, one may offer the following answers :
First the universal adoption of Even Temper has not only thrown into oblivion the beautiful
arithmetical patterns which underlie the earlier temperaments but has also brought about the
situation that such temperaments can never be heard. The present paper, with its essential
component of musical demonstrations, endeavours to correct this situation.
More importantly, however, a new issue comes up for consideration arising from the interesting
impact of a new subject on one some hundred times its age that of electronics on music. With the
introduction of electronic musical instruments, especially the electronic organ, still in its infancy (and
of suspected illegitimacy), we are for the first time in history unfettered from the restriction of a fixed
temperament. The implications of this remain to be assessed, but should imply a revival of interest in
the subject of scales and temperament . . . “
(He describes experiments with Just Diatonic Scales, Meantone, and Simonton of 1953 “Integral
Ratio Chromatic” without reference to other tunings with historic authority)
By resorting to an Even Tempered scale we lose all the difficulties which arise from the existence of
commas, these being in general an expression of the inequality (^)r # (q)s, where all the symbols are
(positive) integers. But we also lose the full consonance arising from the occurrence of integral
frequency ratios*. Further we lose a former peculiarity of keyed instruments, namely the association of
individual 'colours' to the various keys, arising from the fact that in the absence of Even Temper no
two keys show exactly the same system of intervals.
One commonly reads that J. S. Bach was a vigorous supporter of Even Temper and that the 48
Preludes and Fugues were written to demonstrate its capabilities. But there are difficulties in
accepting this statement. In the first place, it seems fairly certain that Bach never played an Even
Tempered organ, at least not habitually, and that the 'well tempering' of the clavichord on an Even
Tempered basis is attributable to C. P. E. Bach rather than to his father. Again a set of 48 pieces to
demonstrate this thesis contains a redundancy factor of 24. Even for so prolific a composer as J. S.
Bach, this seems a little excessive. It is therefore likely that the 'well tempering' here referred to was in
the nature of an approximation to the Even Temper, and indeed it is difficult to see how this could
have been otherwise bearing in mind the difficulties accruing from the high decrement of the
clavichord tone and the limitation of technical facilities . . .
CONCLUSION
One frequently reads of endeavours to reproduce major classical works in their original orchestral or
choral format, and such efforts are praiseworthy enough. But does one ever hear of a production in the
original temperament? Probably not, since the subject has practically subsided into oblivion under the
triumphant impact of Even Temper. Temper. . . . But the triumph of Even Temper rests on instrumental
restrictions which are coming to an end with the introduction of electronic musical instruments. The
future remains open to a wide range of conjecture.”
60
1997:
SELECTED PIANO COMPOSITIONS OF BEETHOVEN AND SCHUBERT AND THE
EFFECT OF WELL TEMPERAMENT ON PERFORMANCE PRACTICE
Robyn M Rysavy -
A DISSERTATION IN Performance Presented to the Faculty of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in

partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS
“In the effort toward recovering the actual sound of older music, one aspect that has been neglected, or
at least unevenly noted, is that of tuning and temperament. While most scholars and performers of
early music recognize the use of various tunings in music of the Renaissance through the seventeenth
century, there is a tacit assumption that at the time of Bach and Handel equal temperament . . .
took over the field and settled the matter of tuning—especially for keyboard instruments—once
and for all. Through the research of scholars such as Mark Lindley and Owen Jorgensen it has
become increasingly evident that "equal temperament" was far from uniform in the fixed pitch
instruments at the time of Mozart and even of Beethoven. Rather, there seems to have been a
proliferation of "well-tempered" tunings . . . the keys with fewest sharps or flats are the purest and
those with four or more sharps or flats sound strident.
There was a well-established tradition among musicians and composers, extending
well into the nineteenth century, of associating particular emotions or affects with individual
keys. The tradition is really understandable only in the context of well-tempered tunings and
certain meantone temperaments. Pervasive use of equal temperament would hardly support
such a tradition, since it makes no distinctions among keys; they all sound the same.
Witnesses such as Johann Nepomuk Hummel. a student of Mozart and acquaintance of
Beethoven, testified to the authenticity and current use of well-tempered tunings, and the use
of these tunings makes a significant difference in the sound of late eighteenth- and early
nineteenth-century music—whether performed on period instruments or modern ones.
Juxtapositions of distant keys between movements, and turns toward remote tonalities within
movements have a heightened effect in these tunings of which listeners to equal temperament
are perhaps less aware. And particular aspects of piano playing, such as the special pedalling
effects in Beethoven, for example, are intimately tied to the tuning that is used.
After experiencing the many historical temperaments on a modem piano, and
practicing musical compositions corresponding to the dates of the temperaments, the writer
became aware of the significance of tuning in performance. This newfound awareness of
what the writer believes to be the "missing link" in performance practice led to many lecture
demonstrations and workshops dealing with the impact of the historical temperaments on
interpretation, and several "temperament recitals" which sought to match compositions with
appropriate temperaments.
Of Meantone he writes - “the purpose is to exploit the beauty of the consonant, mathematically pure
major third. The beauty of both harmonic and melodic major thirds goes unappreciated by the modern
listener as unremarkable because of the absence of coincident harmonic beats. The absence of beats
produces a unique and peaceful sound. Accompanying the much preferred sound of the pure third, is
its opposite, the very dissonant wolf "fifth" and other wolf intervals produced by chords containing
seconds and sevenths. These intervals are more than just dissonant.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
HAMMERWOOD PARK
was built in 1792 as a temple to Apollo and Dionysus by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, brother of
composer CI Latrobe and friend of Haydn. As a focus for history and the arts it houses
historic instruments is open to the public in the Summer June-Sept, on Weds & Sats,
Guided tour 2pm. 01342 850594 – We hope to see you! www.hammerwoodpark.co.uk
61

THE COLOUR OF MUSIC IN MOZARTS TIME A Jo

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A journey from Couperin to Chopin

by David Pinnegar, B.Sc., A.R.C.S.

Paper presented 11th September 2018 to

Open with Couperin Kyrie from Mass for Convents.

Followed by musical examples:

Accompanied by Alexandra Kremakova and Jong-Gyung Park

Fantasia K475 C minor

A journey from Couperin to Chopin

by David Pinnegar, B.Sc., A.R.C.S.

Paper presented 11th September 2018 to

Copyright David Pinnegar 2018

Demonstrate French Horn harmonics, perfect intervals. F 341 A 426 C 533

Perhaps what follows might sound like a reading of a psychic -

Demonstration . . . . Full registration 16ft to Mixtures in Equal Temperament

It's worth listening to standard performances of both K608

THE BACH ASSUMPTION

Prelude no.1 in C major

Prelude no. E flat minor

Prelude no. F sharp major

Prelude no. G sharp minor

Prelude no. A flat major

These need further research to examine effect and intention.

BIBLIOGRAPHY, LITERATURE REVIEW AND HISTORY OF

Responses by John Barnes, John R. White, Hector C. Parr

Encouraged experimentation with instructions for Pythagorean, Meantone, Werckmeister,

It is the belief of this writer that tuning is a

References Hammerwood Park YouTube recordings in unequal temperament.

Much of current relevance to Artificial Intelligence and roboticism

Clavichord, Harpsichord, Piano

Beethoven in the Temperaments by Enid Katahn

Chopin 24 Preludes in Unequal Temperament Michele D'Ambrosio

A journey from Couperin to Chopin

by David Pinnegar, B.Sc., A.R.C.S.

Paper presented 11th September 2018 to

Alexandra Kremakova - pianist, harpsichordist and organist.

Alexandra Kremakova is a London-based pianist and harpsichordist with an interest in performance

A DISSERTATION IN Performance Presented to the Faculty of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in

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