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The Well-Tempered Organ by Charles A. Padgham

Started by organforumadmin, April 20, 2010, 01:08:49 AM

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organforumadmin

Hi!

The seminal text on temperament in the modern age derived from an article in the BIOS magazine which was expanded into a book by Charles A. Padgham called The Well Tempered Organ.

The BIOS website has said "temporarily out of print" on rather a permanent basis for quite a time. It gives tuning instructions for a wide variety of temperaments as well as reports on experiments by Padgam, G K Parker and Peter Collins which, from memory, had been reported in the BIOS magazine.

In view of the continued unavailability of the book, in due course I will start to paraphrase condensed details about various temperaments detailed by Padgham and if anyone else with the book would like to help to do this it would be appreciated.

A few quotations appear relevant without further ado -

In 1879 Dr William Pole, a distinguished scientist and organist says of equal temperament "Under Handel's system an organ was a charming sweet harmonious instrument that it was a pleasure to listen to. Now, no matter how much skill and pains are bestowed on the voicing, the temperament converts it into an offensive harsh cacophony that drives peopole away." (Mackenzie 1979 (a))

The one problem with temperaments is that it's one thing to read about them, quite another to hear them and so I really encourage anyone with the facilities to tune an instrument or to switch a function on some electronic simulation to try them.

William Blood wrote in 1979 that the expression "wohltemperirtes Clavier" had been used for a quarter of a century before Bach's use of the phrase meaning a Well Tempered Calvier and that it meant a good temperament "whose circle of fifths was closed (wolf free) and thus playable though all the keys,and whose major and minor intervals (thords and sixths) varied in size systematically: in order to favour the more common scales and triads, the most heavily tempered of these intervals were placed in jeys with the greatest number of sharps or flats, and teh purest in those with the least. The effect of this irregular construction is quite striking; it enlivens the harmony and emphasises modulation by contrasting key qualities."

Padgham goes on to mention a few candidates to satisfy these criteria: Barnes 1979, Werkmeister III, Kirnbirger proposed by Herbert Kelletat in 1960, Herbert Kellner and Mark Lindley 1981 suggested as candidates Vallotti, Werckmeister III, Neidhardt I and 18th century French Tempérement Ordinaire.

I don't want to be distracted by the modern suggestions of Bradley Lehman, about which there has been ample controversy elsewhere, and quite rightly so as the temperament does not obey the criteria for  a "wohltemperirtes Clavier".

Best wishes

Forum Admin

KB7DQH

If those reading this subject are unfamiliar with Bradley Lehman...

http://www.larips.com/

That link will take you to his website...

Eric
KB7DQH
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

revtonynewnham

Hi

I think you'll find that BIOS Reporter magazines (the quaterly "newsletter") are available on line. BIOS Journals are available from Positive Press in Oxford, but I'm not sure what's still available (it's an annual production).

BIOS (The British Institute of Organ Studies) is worth joining for those who have an interest in the history and ongoing use of the organ, mainly in the UK.

Every Blessing

Tony

David Pinnegar

Quote from: KB7DQH on September 03, 2010, 12:37:01 PM
If those reading this subject are unfamiliar with Bradley Lehman...

http://www.larips.com/

That link will take you to his website...

Eric
KB7DQH

Hi!

Yes the site does explain things but people should not be misled by the temperament that Lehman derived by turning Bach's squiggle on the 48 Preludes and Fugues manuscript upside down. It produces the strongest tone colour (and not very strong at that) in the middle of the progression through the keys with three or four accidentals - and this makes musical nonsense. The idea of unequal temperaments has always been to result in the white note keys being as pure as possible and the black note keys having as much piquancy as is tolerable or to give special effect.

A right way up interpretation of the squiggle by Charles Francis gives a temperament very close to that already deduced for Bach's temperament by Dr Kellner, which I favour.

Best wishes

David P