How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony

Book Description

Critics

• Nicholas Lezard's choice

  In the days when I was a violinist, I would often be exasperated as to how long it could take me to tune the damn instrument satisfactorily. Sometimes something similar happens when I tune a guitar. There could be several reasons for this, most of th ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

1 Review

• 

  Beyond convenience

  Duffin's thesis is pretty straightforward: 1) equal temperament is not the best temperament in all occasions, as compared to its many alternatives, and 2) it was known long ago (long before its almost universal adoption as a standard) and still dismissed by most musicians for a long time because of ... (continue)

  Duffin's thesis is pretty straightforward: 1) equal temperament is not the best temperament in all occasions, as compared to its many alternatives, and 2) it was known long ago (long before its almost universal adoption as a standard) and still dismissed by most musicians for a long time because of its impure tunings.
  The issue of musical temperament is old and unsolved. ET came as a practical and reproducible solution to the issue, and by 1917 it was assumed essentially as a standard. To the point that the physics of acoustics is only taught in advanced musical courses, the difference between major and minor semitones has no real value, and above all hardly anyone has ever listened to music played in a different temperament, so it has simply become a second nature to us. It is just like we have eaten pizza since we are born but never knew about its original neapolitan taste.
  Many might say, ok the difference between just intonation and ET is so small that the latter's convenience for keyboards and fixed tuning instruments is more than legitimate. Duffin claims that today we are beyond this simplistic matter, and it's time to use temperaments as close to nature as possible wherever possible.
  Duffin reconstructs the history of the matter, the many proposal of solutions, the opinions of many distinguished musicians about temperament, the philosophical underpinning of the acceptance of ET (interestingly connected to the rise of positivism, if not communism) and particularly the late disposal of precise measurement tools that finally allowed the temperament to be precise.
  A rather academic book perhaps, but definitely interesting and provocative for what matters, thin and well documented. Pythagoras is still concerned about the issue. Duffin's proposal of using notes as close as possible to natural acoustics makes sense, given the constrainst on horizontal and vertical musical dimensions.

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  Mangoo said on Jul 7, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

Book Details

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• English Books
• Others 208 Pages
• ISBN-10: 0393334201
• ISBN-13: 9780393334203
• Publisher: W. W. Norton and Company
• Pub date: Oct 14, 2008
• Also available as: Hardcover

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