To the Forum:
Concerning my recent posting (in which I commented on Richard Dawkins'
enthusiasm for the music of J.S.Bach) I am advised by the composer
A.M.Sauerwein (Duke University) that while Bach was an avid champion of
'well-tempered' tuning - as evidenced by his two sets of 24 keyboard
Preludes and Fugues covering the whole range of major and minor keys -
'equal temperament', as it is now understood, was a later development.
I am indebted to him for drawing my attention to this matter.
For those interested in the details, an excellent introduction to
historical tuning methods may be found at
http://home.earthlink.net/~kgann/histune.html
With all good wishes,
Vernon
Vernon Jenkins MSc
[musician, mining engineer, and formerly Senior Lecturer in Maths and
Computing, the Polytechnic of Wales (now the University of Glamorgan)]
http://homepage.virgin.net/vernon.jenkins/index.htm
http://www.compulink.co.uk/~indexer/miracla1.htm
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Jul 09 2000 - 17:48:02 EDT