Tuning and Temperament: A Historical Survey (Dover Books On Music: History)

Although I bought a copy approximately seven years ago, and first saw this book in a hardcover edition decades ago, I have not seen fit to write an actual review until now. And this mainly as a rebuttal to Claudio Di Veroli's harshly negative review.First of all, I think it is eminently prejudicial for anyone reviewing a book not to disclose any interests he might have in other books on related topics. Di Veroli does not disclose his authorship of a book until he responds to a comment on his review, and this response to a comment is not visible to people just looking at his review unless they take the additional step of clicking to view comments. I am not going to violate my own ethics here -- I have myself written a book on musical scales, available on Amazon. (And I suppose a negative review that book got, written by a person who has coauthored research papers with the author of a rival book, prompted my feelings about such disclosures.)To describe any book that presents historical data -- in this case, on tunings and temperaments from Greek days till the advent of equal temperament -- as "obsolete" is laughable. The book is a valuable reference on the ways instruments were tuned in past centuries, and I certainly did not consider it "useless," though in my own book I did not choose to provide such a listing -- in fact, readers of my book interested in such information are referred to Barbour's book.Yes, I agree with Di Veroli that Barbour is opinionated in favor of equal temperament. Di Veroli says, "Barbour's purported steady evolution towards equal temperament, and his thesis that it is the only system worth tuning to, are nowadays not just erronous, but hilarious." Yet there ARE people who would agree with the idea that equal temperament "is the only system worth tuning to," despite Di Veroli's opinion. [And, of course, there are books maintaining the exact opposite, such as "How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and Why You Should Care)" by Ross W. Duffin.] What is really the important point is that equal temperament has its advantages, and also its disadvantages, and a fair-minded approach would be to provide both -- but very few people (among those who have taken an interest in the subject) are truly neutral on this question.What Barbour's book is important for is not his "purported steady evolution towards equal temperament" but his descriptions of tunings and temperaments used in the past, and I know of no other book that has the detail that Barbour provides. Di Veroli would (if I understand his review correctly) want pitches given more precisely than integer cents, but in fact very few people's hearing is so precise that even an error of a few cents is a significant one. (I have, in fact, a preference for other measures than cents, but this is my preference, and I do not let it downgrade my opinion of the book.)This is hardly a perfect book on the subject, but it is far better than Di Veroli rates it in his review. And hopefully, people will not, by that review, be dissuaded from buying what is truly an important book.

This is a small book, packed with information. If you know how to understand it and use it, it can be extremely helpful, but may be a tad overwhelming to the novice. Barbour traces the history of tuning and temperament, from Pythagoras to our modern age of equal temperament, giving detailed mathematical descriptions of various mean-tone and well-tempered tuning systems. If you are an early music performer, you should own this book, and if you are interested in learning more about the development of tuning systems throughout history, this is the most concise scientifically based book available on the subject.

Barbour's book is essential reading for anyone wanting a comprehensive overview of historical temperaments, from the early Greeks to the twentieth century. That said, Barbour wrote from the vantage point of someone firmly believing that equal temperament is the ultimate expression of temperament, so the reader is left to interpret the contents, absorb what's good and toss out what's not so useful. Barbour cites many sources, so the book makes a decent bibliogrphy for further study. In fact, having read the book the reader should indeed go to the sources and make his own interpretation of the sources.This book can be a tough read for someone not mathematically inclined - the analysis of every temperament is mathematically-based, and little reference is given to the needs of musicians. Additionally, a great deal of the book's ink is devoted to theoretical temperaments that either are not useable or have never found a use, so the reader is inclined to skip pages unless purely theoretical temperaments are of interest.While this book is essential reading, there are several other contemporary writers on tuning and temperaments. Highly recommended is Mark Lindley's entry on the subject in the New Grove's. For a valuable polemic on temperaments and harmony, read Ross Duffin's recent "How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and Why You Should Care)", available at Amazon.com.

This is the best reference book on tuning around. It's NOT light reading.

A very tough, academic book. Not a gentle introduction to the subject at all. This would not be good as a first book on the subject, but maybe a second or third.

A very funny book which enrich my understanding of the history of temperament

I found this book nearly impossible to follow. Maybe the writing style appeals to some people, but the lack of contextual detail and the way so many names and dates and places are tossed out from the pages- all I can say is I'm glad I didn't buy the hardcopy version.

Great!

We take it for granted that 'equal temperament' is the best and only way to set up a guitar or keyboard, with the octave divided into 12 equal intervals. On the other hand, 'just intonation' bases it's intervals on the natural acoustics of a vibrating string or air column. Sounds logical but then some keys will be out of tune (whatever that actually means) whilst others will sound 'pure'.My recent reading on this topic started with maverick innovator Harry Partch's 'Genesis of a Music', an account of his own theories of intonation, why he rejects equal temperament and details of his own instruments, built especially to play these microtones (including a reed organ he retuned to play 43 notes to the octave!)Then, Ross Duffin's entertaining 'How Equal temperament ruined Harmony (and why you should care)'. He also questions ET and runs through the debate in accessible language.Thirdly then, Stuart Isacoff's 'Temperament' which takes ET as the ideal intonation system to which all others have 'evolved'. He takes a while to get started but covers a lot of interesting ground over the history of the subject, from the Greeks to Rameau vs Rousseau and on into the 19th century.Barcour's work forms a somewhat scholarly basis for the above works. Above all, it is a survey of the historical temperaments (apparently 150 or so of them, though I haven't counted them myself). It is somewhat technical - you do have to figure out fractions, ratios and the occasional square root. Mostly it's not mathematical though (or 'arithmetical' as Duffin points out). Although published in 1953, this remains one of the best texts for the history of the tuning debate.If you want to experiment with retuning your guitar or harmonica, you will find this useful as the necessary theoretical and historical background before getting started with a hacksaw and cold chisel. Part of the difficulty of the subject is that we don't usually hear music in these intonations. Harry Partch and Lou Harrison are just two composers to check out. Personally, I now find anything in equal temperament (which is effectively everything commonly available) to be bland. Maybe it's my imagination but there are many more notes in the octave than we usually get to hear. This was known to some very savvy people in history, as Barbour's work explains.In summary, get Duffin's book first as a very readable statement of the issues. (Like me, perhaps you didn't realise that there were any issues.) Then Isacoff and finally Barcour and Partch for more detailed and practical information. Partch is especially entertaining though at times dense.Partch's music as well as Lou Harrison's and other microtonal composers is available online and on CD.

the best book yet that ive read on temperaments

great book

Very interesting read.

The information of temperament is valuable only from a practical perspective. This means unless you are making an instrument or tuning pianos and similar instruments the information in this book is useless. Even if you are one of these people who could put this theoretical information into use you will find that there are better written texts for the layman. Now if you are reading this as historical references to the development of temperament know that the information in this book is highly speculative. Among basic concepts such as Pythagorean tuning, mean temperament, equal temperament the rest is also useless. The reason why is that temperament cannot be analyzed mathematical unless for practical reasons. By this I am saying that the nature of temperament is more dependent on technology and instrument making than a conscious process or a kind of evolution. Tones are different anyone can tell you that, but how different only the greatest ears can distinguish, everyone hears these differences more or less equally. The goal of any temperament is to make all tones necessary accessible even if that means compromising the purity of expression. The necessitates of musical expression will dictate the variation of temperament. The theory of temperament in a mathematical study is a complete waste of time because there is no context what so ever to make any of this information relevant to music.Edit 4 stars from 2 for the amount of references and effort it took to make such a book. The topic is confusing by nature but the book is not. So 4 stars the effort is worth the rating because temperament I guess needs to be studied sometimes without musical context (boring) but maybe very useful if one was making an instrument. I was too harsh because the topic gets on my nerves, when it is discussed without any music to make sense of it, however in some cases all that is left are the calculations, Greeks, and other ancient cultures have no recordings. BUY IT IF you want a thorough discourse of the theoretical mathematical concepts.Okay 5 stars writing this book is an endeavor by its self, I couldn't do it for sure. I would fall asleep, but maybe when I am 60 and need to make a ancient stringed instrument I will better appreciate this book.