Tempered mood

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As temperament in one calls music a tuning system in which some intervals "tempered" are tuned (from the Latin. Temperare , mix in terms of smooth, soften), d. H. slightly different from their acoustic purity . Such a temperature is necessary if as many (ideally all) keys as possible are to be made playable on keyboard instruments or fretted string instruments .

If you only work with pure fifths ( Pythagorean tuning ) or thirds ( pure tuning ) in the tuning next to the octave , sooner or later there will be adjacent tones that differ only by a very small interval, the Pythagorean comma , syntonic comma or small or large diesis occurs. If you want to limit the number of keys to a manageable number (e.g. to the twelve per octave that is common today), it is necessary to combine two of these closely spaced tones on one key. For this, their difference must be hidden or distributed in such a way that there is no major discord such as the wolf fifth .

The “ equal temperament ” of today's dominant equal temperament solves the problem by modifying the Pythagorean temperament by distributing the Pythagorean comma evenly over all twelve fifths of the circle of fifths ; this means that the fifths are only out of tune by 1/12 of a point. This approximate purity of the fifths is bought at the price of a very strong detuning of the thirds by approx. 2/3 point. According to Hugo Riemann, however, “the third“ can withstand a stronger detuning than the fifth ”, so that the equal tuning could assert itself as practicable.

Earlier tempered tuning systems, such as the mean-tone tuning used for a long time and the well-tempered tunings developed later , are now occasionally revived as part of historical performance practice .

Modern electric pianos often offer the option of switching between a number of different types of mood at the touch of a button.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sigmar Salzburg: Tuning and temperature in fret instruments. In: Guitar & Lute. Volume 3, Issue 2, 1981, p. 6 f.
  2. ^ Temperature in Willibald Gurlitt , Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht (Ed.): Riemann Music Lexicon (subject part) . B. Schott's Sons, Mainz 1967, p. 943 .