AN HISTORICAL SURVEY OF MEANTONE TEMPERAMENTS TO 1620 MARK LINDLEY 1, INTRODUCTION ‘odern German writers use the term mittelténige Tem- peratur to mean a tuning in which each fifth or fourth is tempered by 2% as much as in equal temperament (the normal tuning for modern pianos), and the major thirds are therefore untempered, that is, pure (without any beating). Fig. 1 represents a spiral in which the chain of fifths is Eb-Bb-F-C-G-D-A- a 2.75 no 2.76 noe 2.75 ou 2.76 @ 2.75 co} 2.75 oO 2.76 O 2.78 Figure 1.E-B-Fg-C#-G#, 30 that the number to the right of C refers to the fifth (or fourth) between C and G, and the number to the right of E refers to the fifth (or fourth) between /E and B. A more specific and better name for this kind of tuning is “1/4-comma meantone temperament.” This name tells us that each fifth is tempered by 1/4 of the syntonic comma, that is, 1/4 of the amount by which the major thirds would automatically be tuned larger than pure if the fifths were tuned pure.’ In 1/4-comma meantone temperament the size of the whole-tone is exactly midway between the so-called “major” and “minor” whole-tones of just intonation, which have the frequency ratios 9:8 and 10:9 respectively. However, the classical eighteenth-century French theorists of regular temperaments (tunings in which only one size of tempered fifth is used and in which the whole-tone is always exactly half the size of the major third) applied the cognate term fon moyen to a variety of schemes. Joseph Sauveur, taking as his premise that “instead of major and minor tones, one must take a mean tone” (un ton moyen), said that the best temperament is one in which the whole-tone makes “an arithmetic mean amongst the three major and two minor tones” which are to be found in any justly intoned diatonic scale (Fig. 2), because “usage shows in music that conso- ‘The unit of measure in these diagrams is 1/11 of the syntonic comma, which is the same (for all practical purposes) as 1/12 of the pythagorean comma, that is, /12 of the amount by which a chain of twelve pure fifths and fourths exceed a pure octave. This unit of measure is equal to 1.95 cents. In Figs. 1-6 and 11 it is used to indicate, not the actual sizes of the intervals, but rather the amounts by which they are tempered, Each space between two adjacent hexagons that are horizontally aligned represents a relation between two pitch classes that are a 5th or 4th apart (in any given octave). The space between two adjacent hexagons of which one is higher and to the right of the other represents a relation between two pitch classes that are a major 3rd or minor 6th apart (in any given octave). The space between two adjacent hexagons of which one is higher and to the left of the other represents a relation between two pitch classes that are a minor 3rd or major 6th apart (in any given octave). A positive number means that the interval is tempered larger than pure if it is a 4th or a major 3rd or 6th (or one of their compounds), and hence smaller than pure if it is a Bth or a minor 83rd or 6th (or one of their compounds). Thus the negative numbers in Figures 4, 5, and 11 mean that the major 3rd is tempered smaller than pure.Figure 2. O 22 4.4 rOrO“O“O nances equally altered do not shock the ear as much as consonances more altered amidst others that are more just.” And similarly Estéve, positing that “one must look for the mean [which is] most capable of representing at the same time both the major and the minor tone,” would then label the various possibilities according to the relative sizes of the whole-tone and diatonic semitone (the semi- tone in a diatonic scale, for instance between E and F) in each system: “[with] the mean tone being as 3:2 to the [diatonic] semi- tone...[with] the mean tone being as 5:3 to the semitone., [with] the mean tone being as 7:4 to the semitone...”, and so on.’ (In equal temperament the ratio in size between the whole-tone and any ? J, Sauveur, “Méthode générale pour former les syetémes tempérés de musique, & du choix de celui qu'on doit suivre,” in Mémoires de mathématique et de physique...deUAcadémie royale des sciences...m.devii (Paris 1708), p. 208-19: “au lieu des tons majeurs & mineurs, il faut prendre un ton moyen,” “un milicu arithmétique entre les trois tons majeurs & les deux mineurs;” “usage montre dans la musique que les consonances...6galement alterées ne choquent pas tant Voreille que des consonances plus alterées mélées avec d’autres plua justes.” The expression “more juet” as a synonym for “less tempered” is an indication (among several others in sources of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) that the word “just” only later came to mean “not tempered at all” (see, for instance, note 17). *M. Estéve, “Recherches sur le meilleur syst#me de Musique harmonique, & sur gon meilleur tempérament,” in Mémoires de l'académie royale des sciences...m.cclu (Paris 1780), pp. 118ff: “il faut chercher le ton moyen Je plus capable de representer en meme temps & le ton majeur & le ton mineur;” “Le ton moyen étant au semi-ton comme 3 @ 2.... Le ton moyen étant au semi-ton comme 6 a 3.... Le ton moyen étant, au semi-ton comme 7 8 4...”semitone, diatonic or chromatic, is 2:1.) Nowadays the leading writers on tuning and temperament use “meantone” in this broader sense.‘ 4 enenerene What do the different shades of meantone temperament have in common? They all have a wolf fifth, because their eleven good fifths are tempered significantly more than in equal temperament (i.e., significantly more than the amount of tempering which produces a circle of twelve uniform fifths). For all practical purposes we can say that in any meantone temperament actually used on normal keyboard instruments during the Renaissance, the fifths were tempered at least twice as much as in equal temperament (Fig. 3) but never significantly more than three times as much (Figs. 4-5). From these diagrams showing the approximate limits of the style, we can further see that the major thirds might vary in size from being tempered slightly smaller than pure to being tempered larger than pure by half again as much as the fourths. This is very dif- ferent. from equal temperament, where the major thirds are tem- pered seven times as much as the fourths and fifths (Fig. 6). Finally, in any meantone tuning the diatonic semitone is always larger than half of the whole-tone, and consequently the chromatic semitone (the kind that takes you outside the diatonic scale) is Figure 3. * See the entries “Temperaments” and “Mean-tone temperament” in The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (London 1984). For a syatematic discussion, see Mark Lindley and Ronald Turner-Smith, A New Approach to Mathematical Models of Musical Scales (Bonn, Verlag fiir Systematische Musikwissenachaft, in preparation).Figure 4. ie OO-0:0:0 Figure 5. O -1.567 1.57 OH OuO“OmO smaller. In 1/4-comma meantone, the diatonic semitone is about half again as large as the chromatic semitone; in 1/5-comma mean- tone it is about one-third again as large.° It is by these characteristics—the presence (or absence) of a wolf fifth, the relative qualities of the major thirds and fifths, and the nature of the semitones (are they equal, or are the diatonic semi- © Thus 1/4-comma meantone can be approximated by dividing the octave into 31 equal parts and using 3 for the diatonic semitone, 2 for the chromatic one, and hence 5 for the whole-tone (the major scale comprising 5x5 + 2x3 = 31 parts); while V/6- comma meantone can be approximated by dividing the octave into 43 equal parts and using 4 for the diatonic semitone, 3 for the chromatic one, and 7 for the whole-tone (the major scale comprising 5x7 + 2x4 = 43 parts), (Seo also note 51.) More exactly, in 1/4-comma meantone the diatonic semitone is 64% larger than the chromatic one; in 1/5-comma meantone, 33.7% larger.Figure 6. 7 7 7 7 @) 1 & 1 (8) 1 (Fe) 1 7 7 q 1 @) 1 © 1 © L C 1 7 7 7 7 1 1 101 1 tones larger?)—that we can recognize the various basic kinds of temperament in the writings of Renaissance musicians, even when they do not describe (as they often do not) a mathematical scheme with the fifths tempered by some particular fraction of a comma. Example 1: Hans Buchner, hymn setting (Quem terra pontus), beginning. pele OT, PFTExample 2: Andrea Gabrieli, “Ricercar nono tono,” beginning. rrr Example 3: John Bull, “Alman,” beginning. J itl did As for the sound: the relatively ample tempering of the fifths causes them to beat more noticeably than in equal temperament, and this makes them sound less “empty” vis a vis the thirds andsixths in two-part writing (as in Ex. 1). This good effect is more pronounced in 1/4-comma meantone (where the major thirds, in contrast, do not beat at all) than in 1/5- or 1/6-comma meantone (where the beating of the fifths and thirds is generally comparable in character). However, in 1/4-comma meantone the low thirds and correspondingly low leading tones are rather ugly melodically: one need only play Exx. 2 and 3 a few times over in 1/4- and 1/6-comma meantone, alternating between the two tunings for each example, to become sensitive to this defect. Example 4: Jacques Champion de Chambonniéres, “Sarabande,” beginning. fF Performers with a modicum of practical experience with different shades of meantone temperament are likely to feel that a well chosen shade is one in which a nice balance is struck between harmonic and melodic euphony. Harmonic euphony in this sense is a matter of slow, Vox-humana-like beating in the consonant har- monic intervals (or rather the absence of fast, nervous beating),Example 5: Girolamo Frescobaldi, “Recercar dopo il Credo,” from Messa della madonna (Fiori musicali, 1635). while melodic euphony is mainly a matter of smallish, expressive semitones (rather than large, duil ones). The sixteenth-century repertory as a whole does not appear to favor consistently the one kind of euphony over the other, hence the value of a tuning inter- mediate between 2/7-comma meantone temperament (Fig. 5) and equal temperament. (Many later composers counted upon some Vox- humana-like beating in the thirds, with the major thirds larger than pure; Ex. 4 may illustrate this fact, which is documented by a wealth of late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century writings on tempered tuning.®) The relatively large, unexpressive diatonic semitones of 2/7- and 1/4-comma meantone temperament entail cor- respondingly small chromatic semitones which in their own right add expressive bite to chromatic lines as in Ex. 5. On the whole, however, Renaissance music contains many more diatonic than chromatic semitones. Thus the modern use of the term “meantone” to suggest that the major thirds have to be pure—and hence the diatonic semitones quite large—in Renaissance and early Baroque music has often had musically detrimental consequences, in addi- tion to showing an ignorance of the pertinent historical documents. 2. EVIDENCE FOR MEANTONE TEMPERAMENT FROM RENAISSANCE TREATISES The first writer to refer—albeit obliquely—to a meantone temperament was Bartolomeo Ramos de Pareja (1482). Earlier in * See chapters 4-5 of Lindley, “Stimmung und Temperatur,” in F, Zaminer, ed., Geschichte der Musikiheorie, Band vi, Musikalisches Hiren und Messen in der friuhen Neuzeit (Darmstadt 1987).his treatise he had presented a different scheme of his own, a mathematically very simple procedure which he said even young- sters could use for a monochord to provide a model scale for plainchant; and in that scheme the wolf fifth was ostensibly between G and D.’ But then in the next-to-last chapter of his book he gave a set of elaborate and comprehensive rules whereby musicians could avoid the “bad” intervals on instrumenta perfecta, that is, on keyboard instruments with twelve notes per octave; and these rules make it quite clear that in normal practice G-D was perfectly serviceable and the wolf fifth was between C# and Ab. This is corroborated by Ramos’s lists of “good” and “bad” semitones, whole-tones, and major and minor thirds, and also by the pattern of his nomenclature for the sharps and flats. He did not refer to tempering the intervals, but he did express concern that only “good” major sixths and thirds be used in cadential progressions, and later his disciple Giovanni Spataro remarked that according to Ramos, “the harsh Pythagorean monochord” (i.e., with pure fifths) had to be “reduced by softening to the sense of hearing.” In the meantime an eminent defender of “Pythagorean” theory, Franchino Gaffurio, acknowledged (1496) that in practice, “this fifth evidently sustains, as organists assert, a very small, secret and somehow uncertain quantity of diminution.” Ramos and Gaffurio each referred, though in different ways, to an adjunct of meantone temperament that became fairly common in Italy in the early seventeenth century and for which some occa- sional corroborating evidence from the sixteenth century is also available: the use of split keys for Ab/Gp and/or Eb/D3, for a total of 13 or 14 strings or pipes per rank in each octave.'° But neither 7B. Ramos de Pareja, Musica practica (Bologna 1492). See M. Lindley, “Fifteenth- century evidence for meantone temperament,” in Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, cii (1976), pp. 87-51. ® G. Spataro, Errori di Franchino Gaffurio (Bologna 1621), fol. 22: “el duro monochordo pythagorico;” “riducto in molle al senso de lo audito,” °F, Gaflurio, Practica musicae (Milan 1496), bk. 2, ch. 8, rule 2: “quinte ipsa (quod organistae asserunt) minimae ac latentis incertaeque quodammodo quantitatis diminutionem patenter sustinet.” ° Ramos, Musica practica, p. 81. Gaffurio, De harmonia musicorum instrumen-Ramos nor Gaffurio gave any indication as to the exact size, in practice, of the major third; so we cannot say which shade of meantone temperament was used, nor indeed whether any one shade was favored. We should be no less cautious with the evidence for some form of regular meantone temperament supplied by Gon- galo Martinez de Bizcargui, maestro at the cathedral of Burgos. Throughout the many editions of his treatise he insisted that the diatonic semitone was larger than the chromatic one, and in all but the first edition he put the wolf fifth unequivocally at G#-Eb (see Fig. 7). Example 6: Two brief passages from organ music by Arnolt Schlick. a) b) Arnolt Schlick’s organ tuning instructions (1511) not only describe the tempering and beating of the fifths, but also specify that the torum (Milan 1518), fol. 18”. See Lindley, “Stimmung und Temperatur,” pp. 44-47. 1G, Martinez de Biscargui, Arte de canto llano y contrapunto de organo (Saragossa 1608), three pages before fascicle b: “segun e} Boecio...e] semitono cantable que es mi.fa es menor... hallamos per contrario...ser mayor el semitono cantable que es mi.fa.” This argument is in ch. 27 of the 5th edition (Burgos 1628), in ch. 26 of the 11th edition (Burgos 1660). In the first edition there is a diagram analogous to Fig. 6 but ambiguous as to whether the wolf is at Gg-Eb or at B-F¢. (Both diagrams are reproduced in Lindley, “Stimmung und Temperatur,” p. 186.)Figure 7. major thirds must be tuned larger than pure.’ Schlick rejected the use of split keys and called fer an irregular temperament in which the chromatic note between G and A could serve as an Ab (as in Ex. 6a) or also as a G# for a leading note to A in some kind of ornamented cadence (see Ex. 6b)."* But he said that some people ™ A, Schlick, Spiegel der Orgelmacher un Organisten (Speyer 1611) ch. 8: (with regard to the initial fifth, F-C) “etwas in die niedere schweben, so vil das gehor leyden mag, dock das sollichs so man gemelt quint bruch nit leichtlich gemerkt wird;” (with regard to the major thirds) “die tertzten perfectum nit gut, sonder all zu. hoch werden.” Schick, Spiegel der Orgelmacker, ch. 8: “mit ein pevaslein oder gerader diminuty, tectlein, risslein oder floratur, wie du ea nennen wilt.”felt it was better simply to have a good G#. Giovanni Maria Lanfranco’s instructions (1533) give us very clear evidence for a regular meantone temperament with the major thirds tempered larger than pure. Whenever he referred to mathematical theory of intervals Lanfranco was a strict Pythagorean, but in his tuning instructions he said that both the fifths and the major thirds must be tempered (“The fifths are tempered [just] enough that the ear is not very content with them.... The upper note of each major third is raised until our sensibility wants no more of it”). He put the wolf fifth at G#-Eb by, among other things, saying that the octave between two G#’s “lacks its intermediate fifth.” This calls to mind a remark by Juan Bermudo (1555) that “the black key between G and A was formerly [tuned as] F [i.e. as Ab] but now serves as E [i.e. as G#.”"* One often hears it said that Pietro Aron’s instructions (1523) are for 1/4-comma meantone temperament. But actually they are too vague and self-contradictory for us to know. Aron did say that at the outset E should be tuned to C “sonorous and just, that is, as unified as possible.” But he may have said this merely in order to simplify the written instructions; his intention was to “set out, briefly [and] with as much facility as I can, that which is necessary for the player”. In any case his instructions for C# were merely that whilst “playing A, tune it [C#] together with the fifth, E, so that it remains in the middle a major third with A and a minor one with \ Schlick, Spiegel der Orgelmacker, ch. 8: “es sey besser das man das post soll zu dem elami und bdur gut machen.” For more on Schlick’s instructions, see H. Husmann, “Zur Characteristik der Schlickachen Temperatur,” in Archiv fur Musikwissenschaft, xxiv (1967), pp. 258-65, and Lindley, ‘Early sixteenth-century keyboard temperaments,” in Musica Disciplina, xxviii (1974), particularly pp. 129-39. 1G. M. Lanfranco, Scintille di musica (Brescia 1533), pp. 182-96: “Le quinte yanno participate cosi che...la orecchia non bene di loro si con tenti.... Lo eatremo acuto di ciascuna Terza maggiore va alzata in modo; chel senso piu non ne voglia;” “manca della sua Quinta intramezzata.” See Lindley, “Early Sixteenth-Century Keyboard Temperaments,” pp. 144-50. 18 J, Bermudo, Declaracién de insirumenios musicales (Ossuns 15656), fol. 104°: “la tecla negra de entre Gsolreut y alamire antigumente era fa y ahora sirve de mi.” Bermudo said that in certain harpsichords this black key was contrived to provide both an Ab and a Ga—that is, both a flat and a sharp (“viene la dicha tecla demanera, que forme fa y mi”).E;” and F# was to be tuned in the same way vis A vis D and A. If Aron had really wanted 1/4-comma meantone temperament he might rather have said to tune C# and F# “sonorous and just” with A and D respectively; whereas he actually said of the thirds and sixths in general that they would be “blunted or diminished.”” This remark is problematical in that the difference between an octave and any kind of third that is smaller than pure is bound to be a sixth that is larger than pure; such niceties were not really Aron’s strong point. Aron was ambiguous in 1523 as to whether the wolf fifth might be at G#-Eb or at C#-Ab; but later he placed it unequivocally at Gg-Eb.® The first mathematical scheme for a regular meantone tem- perament was published by Gioseffo Zarlino (1558). He criticized a primitive and irregular theoretical model of temperament which Ludovico Fogliani had published in 1529," because in that model, “the instrument would be proportioned unequally inasmuch as one would hear the fifth with two different intervals, one larger than the other.” Zarlino prescribed instead that “every fifth be dimin- ished and imperfect by 2/7 comma, but the major third by 1/7, by which quantity the minor third will [also] be diminished” (Fig. 5). "Pp. Aron, Thoscannello de la musica (Venice 1523), bk. 2, h 41: “sonore, & giusta, ciod unita al auo possibile” (the clarifying phrase, “cio? unita al suo possibile,” was called for by the fact that “gimsta” waa not a technical term for “antempered;” indeed at the end of the inatructions, we are told that with this [tempered] tuning the instrument will sound “giusto & buono”); “con quella facilita che a me sara possibile, brevemente espedi sca quanto sia necessario al sonatore;” ; “toccando A re, Jo accorderai insieme con e la mi quinta tanto che resti in mezzo terza maggiore con Are, & minore con E la mi;” “restano spuntate overo diminute le terze e seste.” 8 Aron, Compendiolo di molti dubbi segreti (Milan, after 1545), ch. 76. ‘© L. Pogliani, Musica theorica docte (Venice 1629), fol. 36. G. Zarlino, Le istitutioni harmoniche (Venice 1658), p. 126: “lo istrumento verrebbe ad essere proportionato inequalmente; conciosia che si vdirebbe in lui la Diapente can due intervalli l'vno maggiore del!’altro.” * Zarlino, Le istitutiont harmoniche, p. 126: “ogni Diapente resti diminuta & imperfetta, di due Settime parti del comma...il Ditono imperfetto di una settima parte, e di tanta quantita si diminuira etiando i! Semiditono,In the 1560s Giovanni Battista Benedetti described Zarlino’s 2/7- comma scheme in a letter to Cipriano de Rore, and gave instruc- tions for tuning by ear: starting from G (the lowest note on the keyboard), the Eb a minor sixth above was to be tuned “by and large consonant,” and then the chain of fifths from Eb to G# were to be set by means of “imperfect” fifths and “tolerable” major sixths, leaving the wolf fifth at G#-Eb (“from that black G, no fifth is extended”) (Fig. 8).”" Figure 8. Eb>Bb> Fo C32 G3D > A> EB OF#OCH GE tT T T T T T T FT FT Eb Bb F C GOD A E B e1 Tomas de Sancta Marfa (1565) also gave instructions for tuning a regular meantone temperament, by ear.” He said the fifths were tempered and the semitones unequal; his chromatic semitones (“unsingable semitones”) were those indicated by a little tick in Fig. 9, so the wolf fifth was, once again, at GS-Eb. Sancta Maria did not specify the quality of any of the major thirds, but in 1613 Pedro Cerone plagiarized his rules with some slight modifications speci- fying that the fifths should be tempered by 2/7 comma and that C-E should be “very sonorous and very vivid.” Cerone also plagiarized Lanfranco’s rules, however, and said that they represented “the manner most used by masters of organ building.” Elias Nikolaus Ammerbach (1571) prescribed that the notes be 2.1, B. Benedictt, Diversarum speculationum mathematicarum, & physicarum liber, (Turin 1886), p. “288” (= 282): “grosso modo...consonane;” “supra quod .g.nigrum nulla quinta ampliue reperitur.” 2 ‘fT, de Sancta Marta, Arte de tefer fantasfa (Valladolid 1665), fol. 122% “somitonos incantables.” "1p. Cerone, El maestro y el melopeo (Naples 1613), pp. 1048-49: “muy sono rosa y muy viva;” “la manera mas uaada de los maestros de hazer organos.”Figure 9. tuned in a certain order, starting from F (see Fig. 10). Since the G tuned a fifth below D in this procedure was presumably intended to make a good octave with the G tuned a fifth above C, we may infer some vaguely conceived meantone temperament, but not any particular shade. In the same year (1571) Zarlino introduced two additional mathematical formulations of regular meantone temperament, with the fifths tempered by 1/4- and by 1/3-comma respectively. He said the 1/4-comma scheme was “a new [way of] tuning...a new tempera- ment...very pleasing to the ear and not very difficult to do; and he described it in a prominent way, with large type and a diagram. Of the 1/3-comma scheme, which has pure minor thirds (Fig. 11), he said that “it is not as sonorous as the first two” (i.e. not as sonorous as 1/4- or 2/7-comma meantone), and in a later edition (1589) he added, “indeed in my opinion it is a little more languid.’ ‘The reason Zarlino did not claim priority for the 1/3-comma *B. N. Ammerbach, Orged oder Instrument-Tabulatur (Leipzig 1671), proface. © YZarlino, Dimostrationi harmoniche (Venice 1671), p. “212” (= 221): “un novo temperamento...una nova participatione...molto all’udito gradito: ne 8 molto difficile da fare.” % Zarlino, Dimostrationi harmoniche, p. “212” (= 221): “non é cos) sonore come li due primi;” Dimostrationi harmoniche, 2nd edition (Venice 1589), p. 201: “anzi al mio parere 0 un poco pit languido.”Figure 10. Figure 11. -3.67 0 OC 3.67 OC 3.67 OC 3.67 OC 3.67 OC model, as he did for 1/4-comma meantone temperament, was prob- ably that he knew it had already been worked out by Francisco de Salinas, who said (1577) that he had invented the 1/3-comma scheme; Salinas also said, in regard to 1/4-comma meantone temperament: “We were regarded as its inventor while we were in Rome as a youth, and afterwards found Gioseffo Zarlino’s doctrinenot at all contrary to that which we had discovered.” Salinas regarded 1/4-comma meantone temperament as “better, both easier to the intellect and more fitting to instruments” than 2/7- or 1/3- comma meantone.”* Costanzo Antegnati (1608) prescribed exclusively the 1/4-comma scheme; and it is also the only model of regular meantone tem- perament described by Michael Praetorius (1619).” Giovanni Paolo Cima (1606) gave instructions for shifting the wolf fifth from G#-Eb to any of the other eleven possible locations on a twelve-note keyboard instrament. He implied that no one had done this before him, and as we have no evidence that anyone ever did it afterwards, we may consider it an unusual idea. To transpose up a minor third (putting the wolf fifth between B and Gb) Cima said that G# should be retuned to make a “minor third with F..., C# a minor third with Bb,” and so on. We should not take this reliance upon minor thirds as evidence for 1/3-comma meantone tempera- ment, because some of Cima’s other instructions use major thirds in the same vague way (“Eb a major third with B,” “Bb a major third with F#”). Nor of course should we take Cima’s instructions as evidence for 1/4-comma meantone temperament." * B. Salinas, De musica libri VII (Salamanca 1577), p. 140: “Eam nos, dum essemus Romae juvenes, excogitasse videbamur, et postea a Josepho Zarlino traditam invenimus, nihil ab ea, quam nos excogitaveramus discrepantem.” 24 Tbid., p. 154: “superiora, & intellectu facilius, & instrumentis accommodatius.” a Antegnati, “Regola di accordar gli organi,” in his L’arte organica, (Brescia 1608). * M. Praetorius, Syntagma musicum, II, De organographia (Wolfenbittel 1619), pp. 150ff, * G. P. Cima, Partito de ricercari & canzoni alla francese (Milan 1606); ed. C. G. Rayner (CEKM 20), pp. 62-65: “terza minore con f.... il diesie c...in terza minore con b fa...molle;” “accordate g...diesis in terza minore con f.... il diesia c...in terza minore con b fa..,molle;” “mi b molle i[n) terza maggiore con b...quadro;” “b fa...molle in terza maggiore con {] diesia f.”3. ANCILLARY TOPICS Most writers after 1550 regarded lutes and viols as equal- temperament instruments and in some treatises this feature was cited to underscore the categorical distinction between fretted instruments and keyboard instruments. The list of such writers ineludes not only Salinas and Praetorius, but also, among others, Nicola Vicentino (1555), Vincenzo Galilei (1581 and 1584) and Giovanni Maria Artusi (1600 and 1603).” This shows that late Renaissance keyboard musicians used a meantone temperament not because they were ignorant of equal temperament but because they had heard it and preferred meantone temperament. Salinas said that the three forms of meantone temperament which he and Zarlino described (1/3-, 2/7- and 1/4-comma) were all satisfactory because none of them had any consonances tempered by more than 1/2 comma:** as we have seen in Fig, 6, the major thirds in equal temperament are tempered by more than that. (In this light it is amusing that Vincenzo Galilei, who was a lutenist, said in 1581 that the major thirds in equal temperament are tempered by 1/2 comma; but even this would not exculpate it in Zarlino’s opinion, as he held that 1/2-comma itself is enough to render a consonant interval dissonant.)® The distinguished composer Luis Mildn (1536) seems to have favored a meantone temperament for the vihuela de mano. The evidence for this consists mainly of his having avoided certain ® Salinas, De musica libri VII, pp. 143-175; Praetorius, Syntagma musicum II, pp. 65-66 and 150-58; N. Vicentino, L’antica musica ridotta alla moderna prattica (Rome 1555), fols. 103 and 146°; V. Galilei, Dialogo...della musica antica et della moderna (Venice 1581), p. 49, and Fronimo (2nd ed., Venice 1684), p. 20; G. M. Artuai, L’Artusi...ragionamenti due (Venice 1600), fol. 35°, and Considerationi musicali, in Seconda parte dell’Artusi (Venice 1608), p. 33. ™ Salinas, De musica libri VH, p. 164: “Quae Commatis partes, nisi dimidium Commatis superent, aut aequent, nihil aut admodum parum auribus percipiuntur, vt in consonantijs experiri licet.” * Y. Galilei, Dialogo, p. 43: “il qua] Comma & mezzo distribuito por rata alle dette Terze maggiori, ne tocchera a ciascheduna vn mezzo.” %8 Zarlino, Sopplimenti musicali (Venice 1588), p. 147: “che la meta habbia facolta, aggiunta 0 talta da qual si voglia Intervallo consonante, di farlo dissonante.”Example 7: Luis Milan, excerpts from (a) a Pavana and (b) a chord which he avoids; (c) a Fantasia. em es ss, > » pbb LER ALLL = J. 2 did 2chords which are remarkably easy to play on the instrument (and which were used routinely by most composers) but which would sound sour on an instrument fretted for the unequal semitones of a meantone temperament.” This is illustrated in Ex. 7. An analogous argument, though somewhat less compelling, can be made with regard to Arnolt Schlick’s lute songs (1512).°” When fretted instruments were played together with keyboard instruments, some performers even after the 1550s may well have been able to match the meantone tuning of the keyboard instru- ments. Zarlino said in 1588 that because fretted instruments do allow some flexibility of intonation, “one cannot truly say that the species of Aristoxenus [equal temperament] is played on the viol, the lute, the lira [da braccio] or the harp.” In 1584 Vincenzo Galilei said that some lutenists used auxiliary frets rather than play in equal temperament; but he disapproved,” and certainly this device never became widespread enough to influence the tab- lature notation of solo music, according to which each successive fret is a semitone’s worth down the neck. When Zarlino published in 1558 the first mathematical account of a regular meantone temperament, he said that singers accom- panied by “artificial” instruments would match their tempered intonation (“these two things putting themselves in accord and uniting themselves perfectly together as much as they may wish”),“° This was confirmed by everyone who wrote about the matter throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.” Obviously, if singers or indeed violinists (for in this respect the % 1, Milan, El maestro (Valencia 1536). See Lindley, Lutes, Viols and Tempera- ments (Cambridge, 1984), pp. 51-66. 31 A. Schlick, Tabulaturen etlicher lobgesang und lidlein (Mainz, 1512), see Lindley, Lutes, Viols and Temperaments, pp. 56-58, % Zarlino, Sopplimenti musicali, p. 149; “non si pud con verit® dire...che si sona la Specie...d’Aristosaeno con la Viola, col Liuto, con la Lira & con ’Arpa.” %* V, Galilei, Fronimo, p. 20. # Zarlino, Istitutioni harmoniche, p. 136: “accordansi pure et vniscansi perfettamente quanto ai voglino queste duc cose insieme.” 4 See “Just intonation” in The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (London 1984).violin was regarded as a “natural” instrument like the voice) make an untempered fifth amongst themselves, they must do so at the price of some tempered unisons with the accompanying keyboard instruments, so the effect will hardly be “pure.” Example 8: Giovanni Battista Benedetti, progressions which in just intonation will (a) rise or (b) fall by a comma. a) . ee, b) septedy Artusi in 1603 attributed to Claudio Monteverdi a mathematical theory of vocal intervals approximating equal temperament, in- tended to justify the use of diminished fourths and sevenths in madrigals.” But Zarlino had always believed that good singers (i.e. those “with discretion and good judgement”) when not accompa- nied by tempered instruments would revert to pure intervals.” Benedetti in the 1560s pointed out to Cipriano de Rore that if routine progressions such as in Ex. 8 were sung repeatedly in just intonation, the pitch level would change quite appreciably, going up “ G.M. Artusi, Considerationi musicali, pp. 29-33. See Lindley, Lutes, Viols and Temperaments, pp. 84-92. “ Zarlino, Istitutioni harmoniche, p. 186: “con discretione, & buon giudicio;” “quando poi si separeranno !’vna dell’altra, le voci ritornaranno alla loro perfettione.”or down a comma each time.“ Zarlino’s inability to grasp this point and his bitter quarre] with Vincenzo Galilei belong rather to the history of just-intonation theory and of experimental physics than to that of meantone temperament;** but we should take due notice here of Vincenzo Galilei’s report (1581) that as a result of careful listening he had determined that in unaccompanied vocal music the major third was slightly tempered (“the major third comprises an irrational proportion rather close to 5:4”) and the whole-tones made “two equal parts of this third.“° He later abandoned this view,"” but it nonetheless represents an attempt to measure the evanescent subtleties of vocal intonation long before technologically adequate means for the task were available. Renaissance technology did, however, embrace keyboard instru- ments capable of dividing the octave into rather more than twelve parts. Harpsichords with nineteen notes in each octave were described by sixteenth-century writers from three different countries: Zarlino (1558), Guillaume Costeley (1570) and Salinas (1577).8 Whether the octave was divided into nineteen equal parts is another matter. In such a tuning the consonances and semitones would for all practical purposes be the same as in 1/3-comma meantone temperament. It appears that Zarlino’s nineteen-note archicembalo was originally not so tuned, but those described by Costeley and Salinas, and by Praetorius in 1619, were indeed tuned in this way, at least on some oecasions. Jean Titelouze had a nineteen-note organ tuned in this way; the inventor Jean Gallé 4 Benedicti, Diversurum speculationum mathematicorum, & physicarum liber, (Turin 1586), p. “288” (= 282). “ See D. P. Walker, Studies in Musical Science in the Late Renaissance (London 1978), ch. 2. “ V, Galilei, Dialogo, p. 81: “la Terza meggiore sia contenuta da vna proportione irrationale assai vicina alla Sesquiquarta;” “due parte vguali di detta Terza.” “'V, Galilei, Disecorso di Vincentio Galilei nobile fiorentino intorno all’opere di messer Gioseffo Zarlino (Florence 1589), pp. 117-21. * Zarlino, Istitulione harmoniche, p. 140; regarding Costeley, see K. Levy, “Costeley’s chromatic chanson,” in Annales musicologiques, iii (1965), pp. 218-263; Salinas, De musica libri VII, pp. 46-48. *® Practoriua, Syniagma musicum IL, p. B6f.realized some profit from the idea; and Costeley said that in 1557 he had composed his chromatic chanson spirituelle “Seigneur Dieu, ta pitié” for such a system of intonation (which has the dullest leading tones of all). It is often said that Nicola Vicentino divided the octave into 31 equal parts on his archicembalo and arciorgano. This is dubious. The claim is made in behalf of the first of the two tunings which he prescribed for his archicembalo in 1555. It is true that the 31 division virtually matches 1/4-comma meantone temperament (the major thirds differing by less than a cent) and that Vicentino said that parts of his first tuning matched the normal practice of good masters.” He also said, however, that some of the major thirds in his other tuning were “more perfectly tuned than those which we use,” and this is hardly compatible with a reading which would require the major thirds in the first tuning to have been virtually pure. The advocates of that reading have been obliged to say that “Part of Vicentino’s system does not seem to make sense” and that his own microtonal compositions are full of mistakes. Vicentino’s first tuning may nonetheless be consid- ered an irregular variant of 1/4-comma meantone temperament, inasmuch as his 31 “dieses” (so he called them) had to average 1/31- octave and he said that “from every key [of the keyboard] no consonance is lacking.” P, Peeters, “Eine Luttlicher Quelle zur Verbreitung des 19-tonigen Stimmungs- system in der ersten Halfte des 17, Jahrhunderts,” paper read at the 29. Internatio- nales Heinrich-Schitz-Fest in Bremen, 1984. * The cent is a modern intervallic unit equal to 1/1200 octave. The major third in the 31 division contains 10/31 x 1200 = 387.1 cents. The pure major third of 1/4- comma meantone temperament contains log (6/4) + (og 2)/1200 = 386.3 cents. ” Vicentino, L’antica musica ridotta alle moderna prattica (Rome 1658), fol. 103”, °° Yoid., fol. 104: “piu perfettamente accordate che quelle che noi usiamo.” “ J. M, Barbour, Tuning and Temperament. A Historical Survey (East Lansing 1950), p. 118, ** In a typescript essay entitled “The 31 note equal tuning of Nicola Vicentino,” Easley Blackwood has made a list of presumed mistakes, ** Vicentino, L’antica musica, fol. 99: “in ogni tasta non li manca consonanza alcuna.” For more about Vicentino’s chapters on tuning, see Lindley, “ChromaticSome other variants of 1/4-comma meantone temperament may be noted here. Cyriac Schneegass (1590) prescribed an irregular scheme approximating to 1/4-comma meantone temperament (though it may reflect some confusion between 1/4- and 2/7-comma meantone)."" This belongs rather to the history of theory than that of practice, as do also the irregular schemes of Fogliani (mentioned above), Heinrich Schreiber (1518) and Andreas Reinhard (1604). More significant for the history of tuning practices is the variant of 1/4-comma meantone temperament prescribed by Praetorius in 1619. He said that although “C#, F# and G# should be tuned quite pure with their (respective) major thirds A, D and E,” nevertheless “the fifths Cf8-G# and F¢-C# must not beat so much as the other fifths.’ One might ask how A-C# can be pure like D-F# while F#-C# is tempered less than B-F#. That is, if C# makes a higher fifth than F#, how can it sound just as low as F# does in a harmonic third? And again, how can G# make a higher fifth but still be low enough with E to make a pure harmonic third? The answer lies in the fact that often the pipes for notes a major third apart in any one rank are very near to each other on the sound board, and so when played together are likely to “draw” pure even if the melodic third (which they make when played separately) is a little larger. Since the irregularity in question was too slight change the harmonic third, its purpose must have been to make a difference systems (or non-aystems) from Vicentino to Monteverdi” (a review-article on K. Berger's Theories of Chromatic and Enharmonic Music in Late 16th-Century Italy), in Early Musie History, ii (1982), particularly pp. 384-91. "C, Schneegass, Nova & exquisite monochordi dimensio (Erfurt 1590) fol. 3; see Lindley, “Stimmung und Temperatur” (cited in note 7 above), pp, 166-68. " L, Fogliani, Musica theorica docte (Venice 1529); H. Schreiber (H. Gram- mateus), Zin new kunstlich Buech, (Nuremberg 1618-1621), fol. Miiij’; A. Reinhard, Monochordum (Leipzig 1604). See Lindley, Lutes, Viols and Temperaments, pp. 23-27 and 68-69. Schreiber’s scheme was anticipated in an English organ prescription of ¢. 1373: “Ubicumque vis habere seinitonium, semper fistulam inferiorem et superiorem in duas divides,” see K..J. Sachs, Mensura fistularum (Stuttgart 1970), p. 137. ® Praetorius, Syntegma musicum II, p. 168: “cis, fis, gis sollen gegen ihren Tertien ala « de gar rein einstimmen;” “die Quinten cis-gis vnd fis-cia/ missen ..nicht go selir wie andere Quinten schweben.”melodically when the harmonic third was not being played, or at least not played long enough to draw pure. Praetorius apparently wanted C#-D and G#-A to be slightly smaller than the other diatonic semitones, so that C# and G# would not sound as dull, when used as melodic leading tones, as they do in a regular 1/4- comma meantone temperament.” 4, SUMMARY To limit terms like mitteliénig and “meantone” to the 1/4-comma scheme is unhistorical and ill suited to a proper assessment of our sources of information on meantone tuning between 1480 and 1620, most of which (e.g. Ramos, Gaffurio, Martinez de Bizcargui, Vicen- tino, Sancta Maria, Ammerbach, Cima) do not indicate whether the major thirds were pure or slightly tempered. Only one account from before 1571 suggests a pure major third (Aron 1523), and it is such a problematic account that we cannot be certain that the motivation for this was musical and not merely pedagogical. Two sources from the first half of the sixteenth century (Schlick 1511, Lanfranco 1533) suggest that the major third was routinely tuned larger than pure. In the oldest mathematical model of a regular meantone tem- perament (Zarlino 1558), the major third is smaller than pure. Four later sources favor the 1/4-comma scheme (Zarlino 1571, Salinas 1577, Antegnati 1608, Praetorius 1619), but even their weight is counterbalanced to some extent by Cerone’s assertion (1613) that master organ builders used Lanfranco’s method. The occasional use of a meantone temperament on fretted instru- ments is suggested by certain technical details in the music of Milan (1536) and, less clearly, Schlick (1512), After 1550 equal temperament was regarded as normal for these instruments, unlike keyboard instruments; but to what extent players actually adhered © A misinterpretation of Praetorius (by Harold Vogel) led Charles Fisk to make Ca-D and G#-A larger than E-F and B-C in the “Renaissance tuning” of part of Fisk’s last and perhaps most magnificent organ, at Stanford University. The effect has been to aggravate the dullness of the sharps. See Lindley, “A suggested improvement to the Fisk organ at Stanford,” in Performance Practice Review, 1 (1988), pp. 107-132, and R. Bates, Lindley and K. Marshall, “The Stanford eclectic tunings,” forthcoming in Performance Practice Review.to the equal-temperament norm, particularly in ensemble music, is another matter. The most eminent theorist of the day (Zarlino) said they did not. In the early sixteenth century no one had distinguished between vocal and instrumental intonation. Zarlino said that while good singers would match the tempered intonation of an accompanying instrument, they would revert to untempered intonation when unaccompanied; this view was soon challenged (Benedetti c. 1565) and in 1581 one theorist-composer (Vincenzo Galilei) said that the intervals used by unaccompanied singers were like those of a meantone temperament with slightly tempered major thirds, while in 1603 another (Claudio Monteverdi) was said to have implied that madrigals were sung in an approximation to equal temperament. In early-seventeenth-century Italy it became quite common for a keyboard instrument to have thirteen or fourteen notes per octave, with split keys for Ab/G# and/or Eb/G#. More elaborate keyboards had also been developed: harpsichords with nineteen notes per octave were described not only in Italy (Zarlino 1558), but also in France (Costeley 1570) and Spain (Salinas 1577)—with the octave divided into nineteen equal parts (rendering the major sixths pure and the fifths smaller than pure by virtually 1/3 comma)—and then in Germany as well (Praetorius 1619). However, the micro-intervals on Vicentino’s 31-note archicembalo were probably unequal. Finally, Praetorius (1619) described a significant variant of 1/4- comma meantone temperament when he suggested that C# and G# should be tuned slightly higher than in the regular scheme, but not enough so to prevent the major thirds A-C# and E-G# from draw- ing pure on the organ.