> Bruce and Bob wrote: .... Froberger sounds ... wonderful in 1/4 comma
meantone ...

And indeed, this being the best-sounding Baroque temperament, most Baroque
music sounds best on it, PROVIDED it avoids (or just visits very quickly)
the wolf fifth, the 4 wolf major thirds, the 6 wolf augmented fourths...

We also know that meantone was common in Froberger's time. However, let me
quote from my "Unequal Temperaments" book, section 11.8:

"Froberger and Louis Couperin show an advanced use of flats and sharps in
their keyboard compositions: they are playable in Meantone, but only with
varied locations of the wolf fifth. In a few pieces, however, the wolf fifth
should be in impossibly extreme positions such as E#-C (for Louis Couperin's
Pavane in F# minor) and even B#-G (for Froberger's Ricercari FbWV 406 and
412). There is no evidence that Meantone was ever tuned in this way ... Very
significantly ... from 1638 to 1640 Froberger had been studying in Rome
under Frescobaldi, precisely at the time the great Italian master was
advocating Equal Temperament. It is also worth noting that Froberger lived a
significant part of his life in Vienna, mostly as a musician in the imperial
court, where the use of Equal Temperament is documented."

I understand there is agreement about this matter by present-day temperament
scholars. (I recall reading a comment about this matter some time ago, was
it by Ibo Ortgies?).

Best

CDV
http://temper.braybaroque.ie/


---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Note:  opinions  expressed on HPSCHD-L are those of the  individual con-
tributors and not necessarily  those of the list owners  nor of the Uni-
versity of Iowa.  For a brief  summary of list  commands, send mail to
[log in to unmask]  saying  HELP .
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::