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Authors

Mark Lindley

Abstract

RILM abstract: "The type of tuning system in use during any particular period in history sometimes had a profound influence on the musical works produced. The impure intervals of the Pythagorean, quasi-Pythagorean, and later meantone temperaments might well have been used and heard as dissonances in certain contexts. Composers such as Louis Couperin, Francois and Bach exploited the distinctive tonal colors of different keys arising from the French and German irregular temperaments. However, systematically varied intervallic nuances for different keys were not a characteristic feature of the music for Baroque fretted instruments; for these works, equal temperament was the norm."

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