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In my tomes of temperment, ET as we currently define it (approximate?) was not in practice at that time. There has been no surviving evidence even if it was that I'm aware of or discovered in my research. And at least one organ (a marvelous historic record of tuning methods and pitch levels) in existence would have such a flexible and revolutionary approach. There were a number of regional or locale flavors of WT, the more significant of which have been given names and tuning procedures, but most certainly not ET as we know it and the standard practices to achieve it as best as possible.

Equal Temperment is what the customer expects. (There is something to be said about being able to play the piano in any key). It's also a musical standard! If you tune the piano in any other way, it's just going sound odd.

There are references to the 12th root of two mathematics of equal temperament in very old Chinese texts. I can't quote them but I know they predate the European derivation.

Well Temperament, or any temperament variation, is harmonic, rather that mathematical.

Ian - Isn't 1825 a wee bit early? From what I have read, the ET 'boom' wasn't until about 1875.

Look forward to your thoughts.

ET (attempted ET at least) for keyboards has been around many, many hundreds of years, and co-existed with other, more easily tuned and sonorous (for the music of the day) temperaments. Lutes, guitars, and the like were usually fretted in ET, even before Bach's time.

Hi Bob,

It is an interesting quote and often cited. I have often considered "universally accepted" to be an overly broad statement, but in the period you have specified, I believe it to be essentially true.

Ian brought up an interesting point about the difference between parts of Europe and the USA in adoption of ET as the "standard." As I mentioned, it was a time of flux and the "scientific method" was also in vogue. I think that much of the argument of temperament may have also been influenced by the thinking of the day. It was an era when mathematics would trump human response or emotion.

The "flat keys" concept has always baffled me. I have wondered if anyone has actually tallied up the number of times a particular key was used in the popular music of the time. There is probably a doctoral dissertation lurking somewhere.

As is known in the forums, I have done a fair amount of study on the developmental years of S&S-NY. The only references to ET start showing up circa 1890. There would be no doubt, however, that the Steinways were well aware of the discussions, and probably had strong opinions, but there doesn't seem to be any early documentation.

Please reply with your thoughts.

Cheers,

ET has been around for a long time, however, it was not the primary selection.

The whole fretted instrument thing is interesting. A classical guitarist friend of mine doesn't believe that the arrangement and spacing of frets leads to absolute ET. He maintains that there is a great deal of flexibility of intonation by where the finger is placed between the frets. Finger combinations for chords also physically dictates where the fingers contact the finger board. The temperament is actually in flux all of the time.