PATRIZIO BARBIERI

TUNING AND
TEMPERAMENT:
PRACTICE
VS SCIENCE

1450-2020

Mu sical Inst r ument Histor y

 GANGEMI EDITORE
SPA INTERNATIONAL
2019
Via Giulia 142, Roma

ISBN:
978-88-492-4601-8

Hard bound, pp. 592

133 illus.
(26 in colour)
27 Musical scores
38 Tables

Euro 50.00

To order:
www.gangemieditore.it
T

Tel. +39 06.6872774

Until now, the problem of tuning instruments has been mainly

viewed as an aspect of a phylologically correct performance
practice. Besides several chapters dealing with this important latter
aspect, the volume also devotes ample space also to the evolution of
the tuning problem from a purely scientific point of view, starting
ftom the Scientific Revolution and more particularly during the
Enlightenment, with the decisive development of a new science:
“Acoustics”. It consists of a series of articles, most already published
in Italian, presented here in English translation − revised,
restructured, partly rewritten, expanded (in some cases radically) −
and distributed over 21 chapters.
U ntil now, the problem of tuning instruments has been viewed as an aspect
of philologically correct performance practice. Besides several chapters
dealing with this important latter aspect, the volume also devotes ample
space to the evolution of the tuning problem from a purely scientific point of
view, starting from the Scientific Revolution and more particularly during the
Enlightenment, with the decisive development of a new science: “Acoustics”.
It consists of a series of articles, most already published in Italian, presented
here in English translation - revised, restructured, partly rewritten, expanded
(in some cases radically) - and distributed over 21 chapters.
A wide range of themes is covered. The chapters focusing mainly on ‘practice’
deal with problems such as the tuning of French and Flemish organs in
the 15th century, the first applications of equal temperament to keyboard
instruments in Europe, tonality expansion in keyboard compositions at the
time of Frescobaldi, conflicts about pitch in 17h-century consorts, tuning in
Tuscany at the time of Bartolomeo Cristofori, the querelles over pitch caused
in Paris by the new double-action Erard harps, the practice of tuning and pitch
at the time of Mozart, the historical evolution of piano temperaments, the
persistence of unequal tunings in 19th-century Italy. In the chapters dealing
mainly with ‘science’, on the other hand, historical investigation focuses on the
introduction of logarithms for the calculation of frequencies, the new equal-
tempered wheel-harpsichords made for the Viennese court of Ferdinand III,
two different methods of linear approximation of equal temperament, the
Enlightenment myth of the scientific optimal meantone tuning (including
a French method based on early investigations into auditory frequency
discrimination), the long-standing enigma – solved in England in 1749 – of the
beat-frequency calculation of tempered consonances, the application to tuning
of two mathematical instruments (mesolabe and sector), the inharmonicity
of musical string instruments, early methods of pitch measurement, the
sonometer of the Neapolitan scientist De Luca (1828), and the activity of the
composer Giuseppe Sarti on acoustics and tuning. Although mathematical
and physical references are of particular relevance, the use of mathematical
formulae has been minimised, seeking to supplement the discussion with
references to their practical application. This work is thus addressed not only
to science historians, but above all to musicians and musicologists.

PATRIZIO BARBIERI has taught history of musical theory, musical acoustics and applied
acoustics at the University of Lecce, and historical organs at the Gregorian University of
Rome. He has also lectured at the Laboratorio di acustica musicale e architettonica at the
Fondazione Scuola di San Giorgio – CNR in Venice. He has published five books and about
140 articles, and was awarded the 2008 Frances Densmore Prize by the American Musical
Instrument Society for the best article in English on musical instruments published in 2006-7.

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