When did equal temperament start?

When did equal temperament start?

The idea of equal temperament had its most effective advocates among German musicians and theorists, beginning with Andreas Werckmeister in the early 18th century.

Is equal temperament the same as well tempered?

Well temperament represented a departure from the various meantone tunings that were used in earlier music. Equal temperament is appropriate for some music of the 20th century, especially atonal music, and music based on the whole tone scale, but not for the works of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Who invented well temperament?

One of the first attestations of the concept of “well tempered” is found in a treatise in German by the music theorist Andreas Werckmeister.

Did Mozart use equal temperament?

UNEQUAL TEMPERAMENT Neither did Mozart nor Beethoven or any of their contemporaries. They used unequal temperaments — also known as, you guessed it, Well-tempered. In the Well-Tempered Clavier, Bach celebrated unequal tempered tuning, not today’s equal tempered tuning.

Why is it called The Well Tempered Clavier?

The compound adjective well-tempered in the title refers to the employment of a tuning system that would work equally well in all keys—a circumstance rare in Bach’s day.

Who proved equal temperament in 1722?

The two figures frequently credited with the achievement of exact calculation of equal temperament are Zhu Zaiyu (also romanized as Chu-Tsaiyu.

Why is it called well-tempered Clavier?

What is a Well-Tempered Clavier?

Let’s look a bit deeper into the meaning of that title: Well-tempered Clavier… Bach didn’t use equal temperament. Neither did Mozart nor Beethoven or any of their contemporaries. They used unequal temperaments — also known as, you guessed it, Well-tempered.

Did Bach write the Well Tempered Clavier to promote equal temperament?

Contrary to what you’ve been taught, Bach did not compose the Well Tempered Clavier to promote the equal tempered tuning system. Equal temperament actually did not come into use until the *20th* century.

How many Prelude and Fugue are in the Well-Tempered Clavier?

Modern editions usually refer to both parts as The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (WTC I) and The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II (WTC II), respectively. The collection is generally regarded as being among the most important works in the history of classical music. Each set contains twenty-four pairs of prelude and fugue.

When was Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier composed?

The first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier was composed in the early 1720s, with Bach’s autograph dated 1722.