Review

Reviewed Work(s): Tuning and Temperament. A Historical Survey by J. Murray Barbour

Review by: David D. Boyden
Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 3 (Jul., 1952), pp. 451-457
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/739772
Accessed: 14-07-2024 02:18 UTC

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 Reviews of Books 451

sion of M6rike in particular, his lett

to the music of certain composers, e
essential motive of his art. The auth
attempt to probe the historical phase
Romanticism. To have done so would have been to offer a final and
peculiarly valuable orientation of Wolf's personality and musical con-
tribution.

As a token of the thoroughness and scholarly character of the book,

the two appendices contain a comprehensive bibliography of writings
about Wolf and a list of all known compositions by him. The latter,
fully annotated and supplied where possible with dates, is invaluable.
The meaning of Hugo Wolf's art is measurably and impressively
clearer for Walker's penetrating study of the man's peculiar genius.

G. S. DICKINSON

TUNING AND TEMPERAMENT. A Historical Survey. By J. Murray Barbour

(Michigan State College Press, East Lansing, 195I. Pp. xiv, 228.)
In 1932 Cornell University conferred on J. Murray Barbour the
first Ph.D. in musicology given by an American university. It was an
auspicious as well as historic occasion for American musical scholarship,
for his dissertation, Equal Temperament: Its History from Ramis
(1482) to Rameau (1737), contained much new and valuable material,
some of which has found its way into standard works of reference. In
the intervening twenty years, the results of Professor Barbour's various
investigations of intonation systems have appeared in mathematical and
musical periodicals in the United States and England. Tuning and
Temperament represents the sum as well as the Summa (so to speak)
of his previous writings on the subjects. It is an important and long-
needed book written by the man best qualified by training and experi-
ence for the formidable task of collecting and interpreting the vast
material.

A brief survey of the contents reveals the historical and systematic

plan of the book. Chapter I is devoted to a historical survey of tuning
and temperament; II, to Greek tunings; III-V, to meantone tempera-
ment, equal temperament, and just intonation respectively; VI, to
multiple (i.e. more than I2) divisions of the octave; VII, to irregular
systems; and VIII, a fitting finale, is entitled "From Theory to Practice."
The book begins with a preface and glossary and is concluded by a

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 452 The Musical Quarterly
bibliography, an index, and a table of "Intervals with
Ratios."

The general arrangement of the material has been carefully planned

to combine chronological continuity with cohesive discussions of par-
ticular topics, thus permitting the author to discuss the information
from different points of view. Chapter I is entirely chronological in
plan, and the systematic chapters on particular subjects adopt the
chronological plan where it is feasible. For example, the chapter on
meantone temperament discusses first the history of the meantone tem-
perament; the varieties of meantone temperament are then dealt with
by systematic classification according to the amount of "comma"
temperament.
The degree of the technical difficulty of a discussion or topic also
affects its arrangement. Within chapters the summary material is usually
presented first, and the more complex technical discussion follows.
Particularly difficult technical and theoretical matters are put into
separate chapters, as for example, multiple divisions and irregular sys-
tems. In most cases, the mathematical data are contained in tables
which the timid reader can sip, taste, or pass by. But let the most
audacious beware such pages as that (p. I 04) containing the formula
for the mean deviation (i.e. from equal temperament) of the twelve
chromatic tones of a monochord in just intonation whose tones repre-
sent three types of comma-exponents! Such formulas might better be
relegated to footnotes or an appendix.
For the most part the coverage of the subject is encyclopedic, par-
ticularly where topics are treated systematically. What is not found in
these systematic sections is hardly worth knowing. However, the first
chapter could profitably extend the history of the whole subject to
include material some of which is discussed later. It would be helpful,
for instance, to have in this chapter a more exact picture of the relative
frequency of the use of intonation systems in the 18th century as well
as a description of experiments in the I9th and 2oth centuries, including
the neglected subject of the microtone systems of Hiba, Carillo, Busoni,
and Partch.'

The book as a whole contains so much complex and fascinating

information that a short review can merely single out a few particulars
for comment. Needless to say, a whole galaxy of famous theorists and
1 None of these men is mentioned in the book. However, Barbour's views con-
cerning Partch's Genesis of a Music (1949) may be found in a review printed in
The Musical Quarterly for Jan. 1950.

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 Reviews of Books 453

musicians parades through these pages

Ptolemy, Salinas, Zarlino, Vicentino, Ar
J. S. Bach, Marpurg, Sauveur, Bosanque
well-informed musician will be surprised
within the "big four" intonation systems
equal temperament) as well as the vast nu
divisions of the octave. Bosanquet's harm
ized keyboard" of 53 divisions to the o
latter. The detailed exposition of the
subordinate systems and their periodic rec
will be of particular value to historians.
still think that Werckmeister discovered
I7th century will find that it was clos
in China about 400oo A.D., and that the f
figures (to nine places!) were produced
in 1595. Another point, dimly understoo
the historical use of the different syst
system of temperament, Barbour say
that in the early sixteenth century orga
equal temperament than it generally was
The co-existence of different systems is u
demonstration (i594) that the lute c
cembalo (p. 149). The theory as well as
systems is discussed in detail by Barbo
between theoreticians and performers is
contest in i7o6 between J. N. Bach tunin
Neidhardt tuning by a monochord. In
won. Neidhardt, by- the way, classified fo
to their suitability for a village, a town,
last was equal temperament. A few writer
Mersenne, for example, emerges as a towe

In the course of the discussion, some t

number of popular fallacies are explode
notion that J. S. Bach's title Das Wohlt
implies equal temperament. Those who
intonation are in for a rude shock; an
about the best of all possible worlds an
bour's judgment (p. 200) on the moder
"heterogeneous sounds . . . are a mixtu
pered, or simply false' [intervals]. Of cou

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 454 The Musical Quarterly

trained for years to endure such cacophony, actuall

what seems to be a good performance."
In the theoretical sections, Barbour's insight is es
in his criticism of various systems. Here too his spec
frequently emerge, and on more than one occasion
theoretician in his own right. His temperaments com
between equal temperament and existing systems of m
ment are of considerable theoretical interest (pp. 43
stance is his "irregular temperament to end irregular t
(pp. 181-3).
To musicians generally Barbour's demonstration concerning the rela-
tion of the various systems to musical practice in different periods will
doubtless hold the greatest interest. With respect to choral music in
the I6th century he says:
The point that is missed by all these rabid exponents of just intonation in
choral music is that this music was not ordinarily sung unaccompanied in the
sixteenth century. A cappella meant simply the absence of independent accompani-
ment, not of all accompaniment. If a choir usually sang motets accompanied by
an organ in meantone temperament, it would quickly adapt itself to the intonation
of the organ. If this choir were in the habit of singing madrigals accompanied by
lutes or viols in equal temperament, its thirds would be as sharp as the thirds are
today. Kroyer thought the pronounced chromaticism of the Italian madrigalists
showed the influence of keyboard instruments. On the contrary: it must have
been the fretted instruments, already in equal temperament, that influenced
composers like de Rore, Caimo, Marenzio, and Gesualdo to write passages in
madrigals that could not have been sung in tune without accompaniment. (p. 199)

This co-existence of different and incompatible systems explains

why such large instrumental groups were needed as those employed in the
Ballet Comique de la Reine or in Monteverdi's Orfeo - selected groups of like
instruments sounded well, but the mixture of different tunings made tuttis imprac-
ticable. It would seem that this consideration would have brought about the
universal adoption of equal temperament long before it did come. However,
after the unfretted violins became the backbone of the seventeenth century
orchestra, their flexibility of intonation made this problem less pressing than when
lutes and viols had been opposed to organs and claviers. (p. 8)

In the same way, Barbour examines the music of the I6th to the
18th centuries with respect to its performance in the various intonation
systems. His demonstration with respect to fretted instruments (viols
and lutes) and to the keyboard instruments with their fixed notes is
completely convincing. His views concerning choral music may still be
open to some argument. Conspicuously absent is a comparable discus-
sion concerning music for wind instruments, the solo voice, and the

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 Reviews of Books 455

violin. With respect to the voice and t

Tosi (1723) and Geminiani (1751 ), among
intonation, and their treatises suggest t
intonation systems is still prevalent in a
century.2
Tuning and Temperament contains few errors, an accomplishment
all the more remarkable in a book liable to many pitfalls of fact and
calculation.! The real weaknesses of the book are not factual but are
those connected with the problem of presenting the complex subject
to the musician and layman. While the subject itself cannot be treated
realistically without certain mathematical and technical terms, the main
arguments could and should be presented so that the musician and
layman can follow them more easily. The author has appreciated this
problem in principle, as has already been pointed out, but he has
underestimated the number of technical terms needing definition. The
glossary at the beginning of the book, good as it is in principle, is
unnecessary for a mathematician and insufficient for others. The average
musician, for example, must have Webster's unabridged, several good
musical dictionaries, and preferably a work on acoustics to find the
correct shades of technical meaning for such undefined words as "root-
mean-square," "harmonic mean," and "mean proportional"-to give a
sampling. Furthermore the use of certain terms is sometimes inconsistent.
Does the term "diesis" defined as "I/5 tone" on p. 15 mean the same
2 For details see David D. Boyden, Prelleur, Geminiani, and Just Intonation in
Journal of the American Musicological Society, IV (1951), 202-19.
3 The following should be corrected as indicated by brackets: P. 22: "thus
having an interval (63 cents) that is much larger [smaller] than most of the semitones
and smaller [larger] than the quarter tones." P. 96: "Of the remaining four notes,
two would have + 12 [ + 1 and two would have -!2 as exponents." P. 128: If,
for example, the ratio is 3:2 [4:3], there are 5 x 7 - 2 x 4 equals 43 parts."
P. xii: "subsemitonia" refers not only to split keys but to tones less than a
half-tone. P. 205: second entry under Barbour, J. Murray should be documented
further to read: I [#3] (1948), 20-26. P. 47: "Godfrey Keller's tuning rules . ..
can refer to nothing but equal temperament." It is conceivable that they refer to
an irregular variety of meantone temperament.
With respect to documentation, references might be made more frequently to
modern facsimile reprints (e.g. p. 28, fn, I2: facsimile reprint of Praetorius as
well as Eitner's Publikation).
In the case of the paintings mentioned on p. I2, the musician could profitably
be referred for some of them to Kinsky (History of Music in Pictures, I929,
American ed., I95g). Kinsky, by the way, has at least one picture (p. I I, # 3)
that shows the frets of lutes better than "The Ambassadors" of Hans Holbein the
Younger (z533), cited in the text (p. 12), and given in Kinsky (p. 99, #3).
Typographically, the asterisk at the bottom of page 21 seems to be related to
nothing; p. 38, line I i: a period is missing.

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 456 The Musical Quarterly
thing as "large diesis (42 cents, or almost a quar
It would have been a simple matter to include the
and similar undefined technical terms in the glossar
in the index.

From a mathematical and an. acoustical point of view the book

has a kind of rigorous logic and leanness of exposition that will doubt-
less be appreciated by professionals. But such condensation is less than
helpful to others. For instance, on p. 29 the text speaks of "a I4-note
octave, extending from A flat to D sharp." As simple and elementary
as this is to anyone at all familiar with the subject, the phrase is not
immediately clear to the layman unless it is amplified to read "a 14-note
octave whose notes are derived by extending A flat to D sharp by a
circle of upward fifths." Sometimes the reasoning is very close - too
close for comfort in the passage interpreting Aristoxenus's tunings
(p. 22). In comparing systems, the use of different methods of devia-
tion is sometimes confusing. For instance, a passage on p. 35 reads:
"The temperament shown in Table 28 has in its favor, like the '/3
comma temperament, the equal distortion of the fifths and the major
thirds, the former being I/5 comma flat, the latter sharp by the same
amount." Table 28 gives C', E4/5, G-1/5-which means that C is
exactly in tune, and that E and G are 4/5 and I/5 comma flat respec-
tively of the corresponding notes according to Pythagorean tuning. But
when the book says (to paraphrase) that the fifth is a 1/5 comma flat
and the major third is a i/5 comma sharp, it means "flat and sharp
with respect to just intonation." Thus before the reader understands
that the text statement and the table agree, he must remember that the
Pythagorean and the just fifth are identical and that the Pythagorean
third is a comma sharper than that in just intonation.
All this amounts to saying that the non-professional reader will be
handicapped at least part of the time by unnecessary difficulties with
technical terms and with overcompression of the presentation. Another
handicap is the inadequacy of the index. In a work like Barbour's,
which is likely to be used as a standard work of reference for a long
time to come, a good index is simply indispensable to make use of the
real treasures within. Since reference use will take the reader in medias
res, all technical words in the glossary should be indexed. The present
index is incomplete in its listings, and the listings themselves are some-
times incomplete in reference. Through an extraordinary blunder every
single reference to pages after 87 is incorrect. To remedy this, one
must add I to every reference between pages 88-Io5, and 2 to every

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 Reviews of Books 457

reference from pages Io6-2oo.' Finally, t

certain of its cross references waste time
scale, one finds: "See multiple division
Having located a subdivision of a sub
proceed to look up the five references c
plus 2) contains a reference to Arabia
of time. This entry is by no means an
cembalo, organ, harpsichord, spinet,
referred in each case to keyboard instrum
nate references. We hereby enter a ple
Several fine books in recent years have p
their usefulness.
The book is attractive from the out
improved. It is lithoprinted from vari
clear. But the spacing and the alignme
times bad. Some of the illustrations are
defeating their purpose. On the other
of the typing of the mathematical data
For most readers the three deadly sins
of sufficient definition of technical term
compression of statement. Of these, the
the third, can be overcome with relative
and by an accurate, complete, and efficie
cal faults must be corrected, for musi
this important work, a thorough historic
tuning and temperament, the critical
first-class speculative mind.
DAVID D. BOYDEN

HARMONIC PRACTICE. By Roger Sessions. (Harcourt, Brace and Co., New

York, 1951, pp. xxiv, 441.)

It does seem that the time is at hand for a new and authoritative
appraisal of what we are pleased to call "musical theory." Of course
we do not mean musical theory at all. We admonish our students in
all solemnity, as though letting them in on a trade secret, that theory
follows practice, and then we proceed to teach them how music is to be
" The publishers have now sent out a printed slip indicating the method of
correcting the index.

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