> Am 11.01.2017 um 19:06 schrieb J. Claudio Di Veroli <[log in to unmask]>:

> Maybe, you are the specialist (on extant organs but surely not on those
> majority of Bach organs that have gone and we lack most of the info
> thereof!).  

I am certainly not a specialist on most extant organs of Bach’s time. 
 Also, none of the extant organs we know that Bach knew has been left unchanged. And none of them has been unchanged in terms of temperament, which makes them practically invalid as source for modern temperament musings.

I am a historian as you know, and I am certainly one of the few  specialists who work extensively with archival documents of the organ history of North and Central Germany and the Netherlands and with historical writings that deal inevitably way more more often than not with instruments which do not exist anymore. That kind of evidence is frequently quite hard evidence actually for what happened at a certain point in time.

A good example of such work of mine you can find in the new issue of Keyboard Perspectives <https://westfield.org/publications/kp9/>  (vol. 9 ed. by Annette Richards, Cornell university).* I have nearly literally been digging up several lost and even unknown Schnitger organ’s in four countries, basically sitting at home and wading through historical literature.
In that article I published a forgotten piece written by two renowned organists in 1740 in a report:
"Concerning the temperament [of the newly built organ in Magdeburg, Heilig-Geist-Kirche], we have diligently examined and found that it is not tempered according to the old Praetorian method (as it is unfortunately to be found here [in Magdeburg] and elsewhere on all large organs) but in the new way, so that one can play properly in all keys.”
[“Die Temperatur anlangend, haben wir genau examirt und befunden, daß solche nicht nach der alten Praetorianischen /: wie hier und anders wo leider in allen großen Orgeln be ndlich :/ sondern nach der neuen Art ein gericht, so, daß man aus allen Tonen und Semitonien wohl spielen kann.”
One of the examiners was C. F. Rolle, who is known from the examination of the Cuntius-organ in Halle 1716, which he examined together with Kuhnau and Bach. He was after-sought as examiner and would know the situation in Magdeburg, Halle and other large towns of Central Germany – actually including Werckmeister’s old home region (W. admitted in his writings that his new temperament suggestions did n’t catch on.) And Praetorian was the common term then for unmodified meantone temperament. 

Again and again evidence like this has come to the fore. Yet, people claim, that they actually do know differently. 
I regard my peers in high esteem for what the know, and the are free to have an opinion. But the historical records and evidence should be stronger than a mere opinion, however good-hearted it is meant to be.



Kind regards

Ibo

*The issue is certainly worth reading. From this list’s membership there is another contribution, i. e. by Tilman Skowroneck, which I am eager to read. (The issue needs some time to cross the Big Pond).
    
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