A Guide to Musical Temperament
- Author: Donahue, Thomas
an excellent overview to the subject of musical temperament....This is a great book for any keyboard performer to investigate....This useful volume is highly recommended to all musicians and...
A Guide to Musical Temperament
- Author: Donahue, Thomas
Purchase product
an excellent overview to the subject of musical temperament....This is a great book for any keyboard performer to investigate....This useful volume is highly recommended to all musicians and...
About
On keyboard instruments, tuning pure fifth intervals causes octaves to be out-of-tune. A temperament is a system of tuning in which the tuning of the fifths is altered to keep the octaves in-tune, and to allow all notes of the musical scale to be usable. A Guide to Musical Temperament is an introduction to the subject of how the twelve notes of the musical scale are tuned on keyboard instruments such as the harpsichord, clavichord, piano, and organ.
This book covers all the various aspects of temperament, including a progressive discussion of the theoretical basis for temperament, the musical implications of a temperament's characteristics, and the relationship of the theoretical with the practical. Giving procedures and techniques for tuning keyboard instruments, along with descriptions and step-by-step instructions for setting temperaments, the book also includes supplementary notes such as advanced calculations and references. Author Thomas Donahue assembles new information as well as material from previous sources, giving a comprehensive outline of theories and a historical overview. Taking a complex subject that is often presented in either confusing or ambiguous terms, Donahue presents it in a straightforward manner, filling a neglected niche in music and keyboard reference.
Contents
- Part 1 Foreword
- Part 2 Preface
- Part 3 Part 1 : Main Material
- Chapter 4 1. The Basis for Temperament
- Chapter 5 2. Selected Temperaments
- Chapter 6 3. Musical Aspects
- Chapter 7 4. Generating Tuning Instructions
- Chapter 8 5. The Tuning Process
- Chapter 9 6. Instructions for Setting Selected Temperaments
- Chapter 10 7. A Historical Overview
- Part 11 Part 2 : Supplementary Material
- Chapter 12 8. Starting Notes, Pitch References, and Transposition
- Chapter 13 9. Theoretical and Equal-Beating Versions
- Chapter 14 10. Near-Equal Temperament
- Chapter 15 11. Derivation of the Cent Equation
- Chapter 16 12. Temperament Data
- Chapter 17 13. Temperament Spreadsheets
- Chapter 18 14. Instructions in Musical Notation
- Part 19 Glossary
- Part 20 Bibliography
- Part 21 Index
- Part 22 About the Author
Awards and reviews
American Reference Books
an excellent overview to the subject of musical temperament....This is a great book for any keyboard performer to investigate....This useful volume is highly recommended to all musicians and should be included in the music division of colleges and universities libraries
