VioIin Inlonalion A HislovicaI Suvve

AulIov|s) Falvizio BavIievi and Sandva Mangsen

Souvce EavI Music, VoI. 19, No. 1 |FeI., 1991), pp. 69-88
FuIIisIed I OxJovd Univevsil Fvess
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Patrizio Barbieri
Violin intonation: a historical
survey
Although reconstructing
the
history
of intonation for
keyboard
and fretted instruments
(such
as the
lute,
or
viola da
gamba)
has
proved
a
sufficiently vexing prob-
lem for
musicologists,
it is
easy
to see that when one
deals with instruments whose intonation is variable-as
in the case of unfretted bowed
strings-the problems
are
multiplied.
Most ancient theorists avoided the
subject,
or confined themselves to
reporting uncritically
on the
traditional divisions of the
monochord,
without
attempting
to ascertain whether or not those divisions
were
respected
in
practice.
In this article I shall therefore
depend mainly upon
unpublished
sources of
practical
or
experimental origin,
including
some that concern
singing.
Indeed,
these are
the
only
documents that
provide
a secure
point
of refer-
ence in so
foggy
an area.
They
show that violinists of all
schools,
at least until the middle of the 18th
century,
played
in
just
or in mean-tone
intonation; moreover,
the
Italians,
especially during
Corelli's
time,
enjoyed playing
in
quarter-tones.
Just
(syntonic)
intonation
First,
I shall describe
very schematically
the nature
ofjust
intonation. The
Pythagorean
scale in use in the Middle
Ages
was
generated
from a chain of
perfect 5ths; thus,
the
12 notes of the octave can be obtained in this
way:
Eb_ Bb,_ F C G'D' A_ E Bo F#
,C#tOG#0
o o 0 0 00 0 0 0o 0
(the
bottom zeros between the letters mean that the
5ths
are
pure,
i.e.
beatless;
the zero
exponents
remind us that
each successive note has been reached
by
a chain of
per-
fect
5ths).
This scheme
produced major 3rds enlarged by
a
syntonic
comma
compared
to the consonant
ratio,
and
minor
3rds
narrowed
by
the same
amount,
always
with
reference to the consonant ratio
(ex.ia).
In the Renais-
sance,
when such intervals
began
to be used harmoni-
cally,
theoreticians tried
narrowing
one
5th
in each four
by exactly
a
comma,
as a means of
keeping
all of the
major 3rds
and
three-quarters
of the minor ones con-
sonant
(ex.ib).
For
example,
one
might
narrow the
5ths
Bb-F,
D-A and
F#-C#,
obtaining:
Eb+1 Bb+F C G Do A
E-1-
1
E-1 B1 F C-2G-2
O -1 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0 -1 0
(here the
exponents
indicate the cumulative alterations
of
pitch,
in
syntonic commas,
with
respect
to the
Pytha-
gorean scale).
In this
sample
solution
only
the minor
3rds
D-F and F#-A remain
Pythagorean, being
formed
by
a chain of three
perfect 5ths.
Because it
poses many practical problems
in
perform-
ance,
some scholars believe that
just
intonation is
only
a
myth;1
however,
such an
opinion
contradicts much his-
torical evidence. Let us examine three of these
problems.
Problem i
Many
authors observe that an interval of a
5th
or of a 4th altered
by
a comma-that
is,
by
a
quantity
equivalent
to about 22
per
cent of the semitone in
equal
temperament-would
be too dissonant to be
acceptable
to the ear.
Moreover,
in
syntonic
intonation this dis-
sonance cannot be avoided.
Suppose
that in a melodic
succession of the
type
CO-FO-A-1 DO-GO-CO
(in which the
3rd
F-A is
pure
and the
5th,
or
4th,
D-A is
altered
by
a
comma),
the violinist wished to
keep
D-A
pure:
he would thus
produce
the new succession
CO-F0- A-1 D-1-G-1-C-1
completely
formed
by
beatless
consonances,
but which
fails to return
precisely
to the initial C. Such cumulative
corrections would
continually
alter the
pitch
of the
composition.
On this
point
I would
suggest
that in a
public
recital a
5th
mistuned even
by
a whole comma would not sound
0
0
0
0
N
0 0
1
.
,
I.
I
*,,
Ex.l(a)
Pure
5ths
form
Pythagorean major 3rds (81:64=one
syntonic
comma
larger
than the
'just'
ratio
5:4)
and
Pythago-
rean minor
3rds (27:24
= one
syntonic
comma narrower than
the
just
ratio
6:5).
-1
0
0 0
~~--.:,
0 0
(b)
If one of the four
5ths
is narrowed
by
a
comma,
all the
3rds
of the
example
become
just (i.e.
in the ratio
5:4
and
6:5,
respectively
for the
major
and the
minor).
EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY 1991
69
as horrible as one
might
at first
imagine.
Precise
measurements
recently
made
by
Charles Shackford have
established
that,
in the normal
day-to-day performance
of a
string
trio,
the
5ths
are
tempered
from -1 to +1.5
commas
(i.e.
a
range
of half a
semitone).2
More than a
century ago
Cornu and Mercadier measured
mistunings
up
to two-thirds of a
comma,
even in the best soloists.3
In
any
case
Giuseppe
Tartini
unequivocally
states that
he
strictly employed
the
syntonic
intonation,
leaving
the
comma in the
5th D-A,
'where nature had
placed it,
without
thinking
of
dividing
it'.4 This would seem to
contradict the notion that the
open 5ths
of his violin
were
absolutely pure,
and thus would
inevitably
have
produced
some
Pythagorean
intervals.5
However,
Benja-
min
Stillingfleet, referring
to such a
passage
in Tartini's
Trattato,
affirmed in
1771
that
good
violinists avoided
open strings
because
they
were tuned in
perfect 5ths,
leading
thus to a
Pythagorean
intonation;6
this is con-
firmed
by
other
authors,
such as Carlo Botta.7 The state-
ments of these two writers
agree
with an
example
from
Johann
Philipp Kirnberger (illus.i),
in which he
specifies
ber
,ozHart
fd)on au4
fufI)l.
eo
balb
bic
Siolin, ober
jebee (ei3gen
infirumcnt nad reinen Zuinten
gea
ftimmt ifi, mug in
folgenbcn
Mo$
ten bad [ltte a
fcfon
in bcr
lpplicao
tur
gcgriffen
rocrben, mtil bat
b1ote
u l
Iod ifi;
- . - - +
1 Johann
Philipp Kirnberger,
'Stimmen,
Stimmung', Allge-
meine Theorie der shonen Kunste,
ed.
by
J.
G.
Sulzer,
iv
(Leip-
zig, 1786-7), pp.382-4: p.383
that the A in the third bar is not to be
played
on the
open
string
because-with the violin tuned in
perfect 5ths-it
would be 'too
high'.
In fact the
technique
of
avoiding open strings
was not
widespread
in the 18th
century.
Indeed,
the
English
ama-
teur
Roger
North commented (in
a
manuscript
from
C.1726):8
Of the first sort
[of
rules for
studying
the
violin]
the chief is the
sounding
all the notes under the touch,
and none with the
strings open;
for those are an harder sound than when
stopt,
and not
always
in
tune,
which the
stop (assisted by
the
ear)
affects with utmost niceness;
so that
upon
instruments so
handled,
all the
semitones,
whatever the
keys
are or however
they change,
are in tune to the most
scrupolous
of the ear. And
besides all
this, the
power
of the
finger
in
giving temper
and
commixture to the
notes,
hath a
superlative
effect of sweetness
[...
] To
perform
this
[finger-stopping]
well is a
soveraigne
skill, but seems more abstruse than
really
it
is;
for
among
us the
old
way
of
using
the
open strings
hath a
prepossession,
and it is
not
easy
to leave it off. But in
time,
beginners
will take into
it,
and then common
practise
will make it familiar.
J
ES.I
.r-,f
i
il I. I.
-
i. wi
ItP v K
y
.I-
- L
||
1 - 1
2 Galeazzi's
syntonic fingering
charts,
in different
keys
(1791).
The
fingerings
have been calculated in order to
have,
starting
from each one of the different
key-notes,
the same
succession of
major
and minor tones: thus, the
5th
to be nar-
rowed
by
one
syntonic
comma is shifted
according
to the
key.
Galeazzi takes into account
only
the
keys having up
to four
sharps
or four flats in the
signature
70
EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY
1991
Eilll ~ _ -I -- II :_.~~- - - - - -U- . - . ..
-00
I C
I
f
I. . ir. It. Iln ,f
j
F-F !-i G*J
-
(a) Syntonic:
C C: Db D D: Eb E F
I I
i I I
major
tone
/
tone mir tone /i mor r semitone -
(5/4)
(b)
Mean-tone:
C C# Db D Dt Eb E IF
1- I i I
I I Ii
\ mean tone < mean tone major
semitone /
(c) Pythagorean:
C Db Ct DI Eb Dt El F
i.
' I I I I'
major
tone
major
tone
/ minor semitone/
(5/4+1 comma)
3
Relative size of tones and semitones in the
syntonic,
mean-tone and
Pythagorean systems
Italian violinists
very probably
carried the
technique
with them to
England,
since their intonation was
upheld
as a model even
early
in the 18th
century.9
Problem 2 In the
just
scale of C
major
we have the fol-
lowing
succession of
major
and minor tones:
mo Do E-1
i
B-1 C
major
minor
major
minor
major
To
transpose
the same scale to
G,
the violinist would
have to raise the A
by
one
comma,
in order to transform
G-A into a
major
tone. We can
easily imagine
how com-
plicated
the task would be if our violinist had to trans-
pose
the same
melody
into all 12 tonalities: he would
continually
face the dilemma of
choosing-and
with the
speed
of
lightning-between
two notes
differing by only
a comma
(that
is about two
millimetres,
less than one-
tenth of an
inch,
in the central
part
of the
fingerboard).
Nonetheless,
Francesco Galeazzi-who
spent many
years
in Rome as a violinist at the Teatro Valle-stated in
1791
that the best
performers changed
the
position
of the
major
and minor tones
according
to the
key
of the com-
position.'
He included a
fingering
chart
containing
such
alterations,
by
commas
(illus.2). Furthermore,
he
sug-
gests
that his chart would make
sgangheratamente
ridere i
poco
avveduti Suonatori,
quelli
specialmente,
che sono materiali,
e suonano
per
mera
pra-
tica
[.
.
.].
the less
precise players laugh heartily, especially
the
ordinary
ones who
play merely
for the
practice [.
.
.]
Thus,
only
first-class virtuosi were able to
play
in this
way: ordinary
violinists,
whatever the
tonality
in which
they played, always put
their
fingers
in the same
places.
Alexander Malcolm
(1721)"
and Charles Delezenne
(1826-7)12
offer clear historic confirmation of this
habit,
which caused
changes
in the character of the
piece
as it
was
transposed
into different
keys.
Hubert Le Blanc
(1740)
states that a few violinists of his
day,
in order to
shift the
position
of
major
and minor
tones,
even had
the habit of
slightly adjusting
the
tuning
of the
open
strings according
to the
key
in which
they
were
going
to
play.3
Problem
3
There is not a
unique
and 'natural'
just
intonation
system;
rather,
there are
many, according
to
the
5ths
that one chooses to narrow
by
a comma.
Towards the end of the 18th
century,
the French
experi-
mental
physicist Jacques-Alexandre
Charles demon-
strated-even at the Paris
Conservatory
of Music-that
EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY
1991 71
Giambattista Viotti and Pierre Baillot
employed
a kind
of
just
intonation in which G-A was made
equal
to a
major
tone
(the
narrowed
5th
in the
key
of C
major
was
thus
A-E).14
He called it the Gamme
europeenne,
in
opposition
to the ancient Gamme
grecque
(in which,
as
we have
already
seen,
the narrowed
5th
was
D-A):
Gamme
grecque: CO DO
E-1 F
GO
A-l B-1
CO
Gamme
europeenne: CO DO
E-1 F
GO
A B-1
CO
According
to
Charles,
this habit came about because-
complying
with the modern tonal
feeling-violinists
played
both the scale of C and its
dominant,
G
major,
as
strict
parallels (and
this
notwithstanding
the fact that the
Gamme
europeenne
retained more
Pythagorean 3rds).
In
1751
d'Alembert and de Mairan-in
agreement
with Rameau's
theory-had already
observed that a the-
oretician of their
time,
Mr
Estve, sans doute
pour
avoir
plus
de
consonances,
fait
l'inter-
valle du sol au la, un ton
mineur, au lieu
queplusieurs
musiciens
font
cet intervalle un ton
majeur,
divisant ainsi la
gamme
en deux
tetracordes
parfaitement egaux
e
semblables, ut re
mifa,
sol la si
ut.15
Mr
Esteve,
undoubtedly
in order to obtain a
greater
number of
consonances,
makes the interval from G to A a minor
tone,
while
many
musicians make this interval a
major
tone,
thus
dividing
the scale in two
perfectly equal
and similar tetra-
chords: C-D-E-F and G-A-B-C.
The evidence of Malcolm'6 and
Hesselgren17
also
sup-
ports
the Gamme
europeenne.
Mean-tone
(mesotonic)
intonation
Mean-tone can be considered a
tempered just
inton-
ation-because instead of
narrowing by
a whole comma
one
5th
in
every group
of four-each
5th
is narrowed
equally by
a
quarter
of a comma:
Eb-4 Bb-4 F -4 C -
G
-
D
-,
A -/E -4 B -4 F- 4
Ct
-4 G
The three
'problems'
examined in the
preceding
sec-
tion thus
evaporate,
since:
(i) excessively
narrowed
5ths
do not
occur; (2) large
and small
major
2nds are
replaced
by
a
single
tone of intermediate
size,
i.e. the 'mean tone'
(illus.3b); (3)
there is no
longer
a distinction between the
various
syntonic tunings,
such as 'Greek' or
'European'.
Since the
quarter-comma temperament
became the
standard for
tuning harpischords
and
especially organs
for a
good part
of the 18th
century,
such a solution for
violin
tuning
eliminates all differences of
pitch
and
intonation between
keyboard
and unfretted bowed
strings.
4 [facing] (a)
Vibrating string-lengths
in mean-tone inton-
ation
(total string length
from nut to
bridge
is
13 inches):
A.
Warren
(1725).
This author has carried out his calculations
according
to the
equal-tempered system
with
31
notes to the
octave;
string lengths
are almost
exactly
the same as the
quar-
ter-comma
temperament. (On
the left there is
added,
in mod-
ern
notation,
the first notes of the
G-string.)
(b) Syntonic-mean-tone fingering
chart:
[Francesco
Geminiani],
The Art
of Playing
on the Violin
(doubtful work,
wanting
the title
page), plate
between
pp.4-5 (London,
British
Library, d.47.g-3).
The author
clearly
warns: 'Note also that as
Gt and
Ab,
or A: and
Bb, or also D: and
Eb, etc,
are not the
same
notes,
you
must not
stop
them with the same
finger.'
(c) Syntonic-mean-tone fingering
chart:
Georg
Simon
Lohlein,
Anweisung
zum
Violin-spielen (Leipzig, 1774), p.35
2.
M
fol r Ila
mi fi
folb reb lab mio tfib
fid atd fold red lad
fa ut fol rc 1I
fab utb folb reb lab
mi fi fad urd fold
mib tfb fh ut fot
red lad mid fid fadd
re la mi fi fad
rcb lab mib fib fa
utd fold rid lad mid
ur col re la mi
I~--..,.jo
..m
M --
-
_,. -l . - .
-
7-r ........... - -- -
0,
- -1
_- ,
_m
5 Reconstruction,
with the
quarter-comma temperament,
of Geminiani's
fingering
chart:
[Du Perron] (1769), p.688
(compare illus.4b)
Although
this
tuning
would be
very logical
and in full
agreement
with the
keyboard practice
of the
day, only
a
few authors
suggest
it for the violin:
1 Adriano Banchieri
(1609),
whose
position
will be
examined
below;
2 Ambrose Warren
(1725),
an
English organ
tuner,
who
commented:18 'It must be
own'd,
that all
just performers
by
the voice or on the
violin,
do
always,
in all
occasions,
sing,
or
stop according
to this doctrine'
(illus.4a);
3 Jean Dumas
(1756),
a French
mathematician;19
4
an
anonymous
author
(who
can be identified with
one 'Monsieur du
Perron'),
whose article in the Journal
des
seavans (1769)
reconstructs Geminiani's well known
fingering
chart
according
to the
quarter-comma
tem-
perament (illus.5).20
(Note that both David
Boyden
and
J.
Murray
Barbour in
1951-2
concluded that the
fingering
72
EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY
1991
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C
i
chart in the various
English
editions of Geminiani's vio-
lin method lies closer to mean-tone than to
syntonic
tuning.)21
One of the
consequences
of mean-tone intonation
was that
open-string 5ths
had to be
tempered. Although
this
practice
was not
widespread,
a few authors men-
tioned it:
1
Jean-Philippe
Rameau
(1737), referring
to the Italian-
French violin
player
Jean-Pierre
Guignon(Giovanni
Pie-
tro
Ghignone, probably
a
pupil
of Giovanni Battista
Somis);22
2 Jean Dumas
(1756),
who is
very positive
about its
employment
both on violin and
violoncello;23
3 Jean-Laurent
de
Bethizy (1764)
and the Abbe Rou-
ssier
(1770);24
4
Antonio Eximeno
(1775),
a
Spanish
theorist who had
lived in Rome from
1768;25
5
the
anonymous
author of the New
Instructionsfor
the
Violoncello
(c.1795),
who warns
players
that
they
should
tune while
taking
care 'to make the
5ths
rather flat than
sharp';26
6
surprisingly,
the Italian
Luigi
Picchianti,
who writes
in the
mid-lgth century
that in order to avoid
making
the
open-string major
6th G-E a
Pythagorean
interval,
e
indispensabile,
che le tre
quinte
siino un
poco
calanti, e tali
appunto
le
formano praticamente
i suonatori di
Violino,
ed
ipiui
senza
saperne
il
perche27
it is
necessary
that the three
open-string 5ths
be a little
flat,
and
this is the
way
violin
players
tune them in
practice,
the
majority
of them without
knowing why.
When violins tuned in
perfect 5ths
had to
play
with
keyboard
instruments,
many problems
of
pitch
arose:
J.-C . Petit
(1740)
even
suggested
a
harpsichord tuning
'en faveur du
violon',
i.e. with some diatonic
5ths
left
pure.28
As late as
1830,
in an
anonymous
Venetian manu-
script,
the
key
of E
major
was classified as
difettoso
nei
complessi
armonici
[.
.]
poiche
ammette molte
quinte
di
seguito partendo
dal C e
percio
esiste una
differenza
rimarcabile
fra gli
strumenti da tasto mobile e
quelli
da tasto
fisso.29
problematic
in ensemble music
[.. .] because from C
[to E]
there is a chain formed
by
many 5ths,
and therefore a notice-
able difference
[of pitch]
between bowed and
keyboard
instruments.
Indeed,
we know that in
keyboard
instruments the four
5ths
C-G-D-A-E were still
markedly tempered
at that
time.
In
conclusion,
we cannot state that
Baroque
violinists
played strictly
with
'just'
or mean-tone
intonation,
but
we can at least be sure that
they
used a
tuning
of the
syn-
tonic-mean-tone
type.
In fact we have evidence that:
(1)
their
major 3rds
were
just,
and
(2)
the
sharps
were lower
than the
enharmonically equivalent
flats
(e.g.
D#
was
lower than
Eb).
As far as the first
point
is
concerned,
towards the end
of the 16th
century,
Vincenzo Galilei had
already
noticed
that
major 3rds
were
sung
at least
approximately
in
just
intonation: his statement is
fully
reliable,
because as a
reference instrument he had
adopted
the
lute,
whose
equal-tempered major 3rds
were much
larger
than
syn-
tonic ones.30 Even in the
mid-lgth
century Filippo
Fod-
era-a 'scientific' violin amateur of Palermo-showed
experimentally
that on bowed instruments the
3rds
were
played
in
just
intonation.31
Turning
to the second
point,
we must observe that the
well established
practice
of
syntonic-mean-tone
tuning-favoured, especially
in
Italy, by
the wide diffu-
sion of
harpischords
and
organs
with
split keys-had
in
fact made violinists accustomed to
differentiating
instinctively
the
precise tuning
of
enharmonically
equivalent
notes. In addition to the
diagrams
in
illus.4-5,
this is confirmed
by
a
variety
of authors: Pier-
francesco Tosi
(1723);32
Giovanfrancesco
Becattelli,
a
Florentine maestro di
cappella (1726);33
Robert Crome
(1740-50) (illus.6); l'Abbe
le fils
(1772) (illus.7);
Michel
Woldemar,
who claims to have been a
pupil
of Antonio
Lolli
(1798) (illus.8);
Anicot l'ain6
(c.1800o);34
Carlo Ger-
vasoni
(1812).35
The Venetian Melchiorre
Balbi,
maestro
di
cappella
at the Basilica del Santo in
Padua,
in
1829
stated that even the most
ordinary
violin
player,
when
unaccompanied, customarily preserved
a sensibilissima
syntonic
distinction between two
enharmonically
equivalent
notes.36
DIAL GUE II
Fourth
String.
Third
String.
J
Jo.j j2
23 3
4 03 3
6 Enharmonic distinction between
G#/Ab and D#/Eb: Rob-
ert
Crome,
The Fiddle New Model'd or a
Useful
Introduction
for
the Violin
(London, 1740-50), p.13
74
EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY
1991
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Enharmonic distinction between
G7/Ab, D3/Eb and A/Bb:
Joseph-Barnabe Saint-Sevin,
dit l'Abb le
fils, Principes
de vio-
lon
(Paris, [1772]), P.73
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EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY
1991 75
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Ex.2 Ferdinand III
(of Austria),
Chi
volge
ne la
mente,
opening, showing
an enharmonic distinction between D:/Eb
(con-
tralto
part)
|I |J
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Ex.3
Domenico Mazzocchi's distinction between
G/Ab,
in his Planctus matris
Euryali
diatonico-chromatico-enharmonice,
(1638):
from Athanasius
Kircher,
Musurgia
universalis, i
(Rome, 1650), p.661
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7 6
Performance of the Enharmonic Diesis
We have seen
that,
for
example,
D-D# was a minor
semitone and D-Eb a
major
one. We will now examine
the
practical
circumstances in which a
singer
or a vio-
linist
actually
had to
play
the
step
Dg-Eb,
i.e. the enhar-
monic
quarter-tone (actually
closer to one-fifth of a
tone).
Leaving
aside the
experimental
microtonal com-
positions
of Vicentino and
Colonna-Majone,37
we find a
simple example
at the
beginning
of a
madrigal
of Ferdin-
and III of Austria
(ex.2).
This monarch was a
pupil
of his
Kapellmeister
Giovanni
Valentini,
owner of a
harpsi-
chord with
split keys.3
Domenico Mazzocchi too-in
his famous Planctus matris
Euryali
diatonico-chromat-
ico-enharmonice
(1638)-employed
the
G#-Ab
enhar-
monic diesis
(ex.3).
For instrumental
consort,
we have a
complete composition published by
Abdias Treu in
1635
(ex.4);
but
perhaps
the best musical
example
is the motet
Derelinquat impius
viam suam
by
Galeazzo Sabbatini
(ex.5).39
According
to the French
physicist
Charles Hebert
(1733),
Antonio Montanari-one of the best Italian vio-
linists of his
time-employed
enharmonic intervals
when
playing
the
Sinfonie
of his
teacher,
Arcangelo
Corelli.40 In his
manuscript
Hebert also writes:
I'jtalien
n'est
pas
si
eloigne
de
l'usage
des cordes
enharmoniques
que
le
francois; je fonde
cette
pensee
sur la
joye qui
se
repand
tout
a
coup
sur le
visage
de toute une assemblee
jtalienne d
l'occasion
de
quelque simphonie
ou concert, des
que
l'on touche
quelques
unes de ces
cordes,
c'est un viva
qui passe
de l'un a l'autre dans un
jstant, fasse
en
presence
du Sanctaire, tandis
qu'un francois
nou-
vellement arrive ne
pourroit
contenir ses
grimaces [. .]41
Italians are not so far removed from the use of enharmonic
notes as the French;
I have formed this
opinion looking
at the
joy
that
suddenly appears
on the face of a whole Italian audi-
ence,
in a sinfonia or
concerto,
when one of these notes is
played:
in an instant all of them exclaim
Viva!,
even if
they
are
in a
church,
while a
newly
arrived Frenchman could not con-
ceal his distaste
[...].
76
EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY
1991
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Ex.4
Instrumental
composition
based on the enharmonic distinction between D#/Eb, A#/Bb and E#/F: Abdias Treu (Trew),
Lycei
musici
theorico-practici [...] Explicatio
tredecim divisionum monochordi.
.. (Rothemburg, 1635) pp.38-9.
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Ex.5
Galeazzo Sabbatini,
'diatonico-cromatico-enarmonico' motet
Derelinquat impius
viam
suam,
bars
63-92
63
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EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY 1991
Ex.6
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Les Indes
galantes (1735):
the A#/Bb
quarter
tone in the famous
'earthquake'
of Act
2
L'opouvanto
salsit los P6ruv'lons, I'assomblde so disperso.
yons
Alt.
B.C.
r. , I I & -t
moms doitx
i . go
fort do.x
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Ex.7 Quarter
tones in Nicola Mestrino's
compositions: (a)
Douze
grand
solo ou etudes
(Paris,
late
18th century), p.38; (b)
Fan-
taisie et variations
(Paris,
late 18th
century),
p.2
('Fantaisie
a violon
solo'); (c) Ibid.,
pp.8-9 ('Capricio
a deux
violons'),
first vio-
lin
part (the
second violin
plays harmonically, e.g. C-Eb, F$-D$, B-DS; (d) Ibid.,
p.1o
0 43 00
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II^I
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I~J
_ PI,
'I
But,
still
according
to
Hebert,
in
1733
the use of such
enharmonic intervals was
already fading,
because the
harpsichords
with
split keys
were no
longer
in fashion.
According
to de
Blainville,
Pietro Locatelli also
employed
such distinct
pitches
in his first concerts.42
With
respect
to the
French, Hebert's statement
explains why Jean-Philippe
Rameau was unable to make
French audiences
accept
his
enharmonique-chromatique
and
enharmonique-diatonique genres.
In the famous
'earthquake'
of Les Indes
galantes (Act 2),
the musicians
would not
play
the
required quarter-tone,
and his
piece
was
performed
as une
musique
commune.43 This com-
position
is in the enharmonic-chromatic
genre,
since
the enharmonic diesis follows the chromatic semitone
(ex.6).
In contrast to the
French,
some Italian violinists were
still
employing quarter-tones
in the second half of the
18th
century:
see Nicola Mestrino
(ex.7)
and-still
later,
EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY 1991
79
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moins doux
Jort
I I
Ex.8 Bartolomeo
Campagnoli,
Six
fugues pour
le violon seul: see the
Pythagorean
commatic interval Ab-G#
^ I ^ I
...7 I S . I I , I - I I k s. I i
J I
in
Pythagorean
intonation-Bartolomeo
Campagnoli
(ex.8).
In
Italy
microtones were also
employed
in melodic
embellishment. Andrea
Angelini Bontempi,
who in the
first half of the 17th
century
studied in the strict Roman
schools,
states that
quarter-tones
were
easily produced
by
the best
singers, just
for this
purpose (ex.9a).
The
middle staff of ex.9b shows how
Angelini developed
an
enharmonic diminuzione: it was not written down on
the
score,
he
says,
because such 'distendimenti e allenta-
menti di voce'
(raising
and
lowering
of the
pitch)
belonged
to the art of the
singer,
and not to the science of
the
composer. Analogous
to
Bontempi's
distendimenti,
crescimenti della voce had
already
been
prescribed by
the
Romans Ottavio Durante
(Arie devote, 1608)
and
Domenico Mazzocchi
(Madrigali, 1638).
For the
latter,
half of the enharmonic diesis
(indicated by
the
sign V)
represented
the
'sollevazione,
or (as some
say)
messa di
voce)44
Such effects were also tried on
strings.
Francisco Valls,
maestro di cappella at a series of
major Spanish
churches
between 1688 and
1740, presented
in
manuscript
a
piece
Ex.9
Giovanni Andrea
Angelini Bontempi,
Historia musica
(Perugia, 1695), p.158
(a)
spesso spesso
cromatico enarmonico
J: CO
o
43
(b)
ib
r
j
I
J
Je
-
Ac- cre sce ac - cre
for three violins and
violoncello,
the first few bars of
which are shown in ex.loa. He
says
that it is based on the
scale shown in
ex.lob,
with
regard
to which he confines
himself to
explaining
that the
sign
x indicates an elevat-
ion in
pitch
of'two and one-half commas', ie 'half the die-
sis
#. Moreover,
the discussion
gives
him the chance to
conclude with a
strong
measure,
affirming
that such a
piece
sera
dificultosissima
su
pratica:
aun
que hay algunas
vozes,
y
instrumentistas,
que
son tan desentonados,
que
naturalmente
tocan,
6 cantan enharmonicamente,
que
no
hay
oldos
que
lo
pue-
den
sufrir.
will be rather difficult to
play, although
there
may
be some
singers
and instrumentalists so far out of
tune,
who
by
nature
sing
or
play enharmonically,
that one cannot find an ear that
can endure it.
According
to Michel
Woldemar,
this enharmonic orna-
mentation-always
with reference to bowed instru-
ments-was
peculiar
to the Italian school. Woldemar
also transcribed an Andante amoroso
exactly
as Mestrino
had
performed
it in the Paris Concerts
Spirituels,
c.1786-9 (illus.9).
In his
performance, beyond any
doubt
Mestrino had to make clear the individual
quarter-
tones: the normal
glissandi per
via di
striscio,
in which
one
passes
from one note to another without a
break,
were in fact common
enough
at that time. In
1736
Gior-
dano Riccati confirmed the evidence that such
glissandi
were
performed 'daily by
violinists and
by singers'.45
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FEBRUARY
1991
Ex.lo
Francisco Valls, Mapa armonico-practico,
undated
manuscript (Madrid,
Biblioteca Nacional, M.1o71), pp.251-2
(a) Composicion
Enharmonica
para
Instrumentos de Arco
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EX F..PLE.
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from M. Woldemar, Grande methode... (Paris, [1798]), p33 ('Mestrino a
fait entendre a Paris le
genre enharmonique
d'une maniere savante')
EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY
1991
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Violin 2
Violin 3
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i
Pythagorean
and
'expressive'
intonation
Toward the middle of the 18th
century
the modern har-
monic-tonal
system
had also
begun
to
impose
its con-
straints on
tuning:
the
pull
of the tonic on the
leading
note and of the sixth
degree
on the minor
7th,
for
example,
had become so
strong
that these two semi-
tones,
which in the
syntonic-mean-tone system
were
major,
were now minor. Thus the
sharps
became
higher
than the
enharmonically equivalent
flats
(illus.2c).
For
these reasons, this
'Pythagorean-expressive'
intonation
might
also be termed 'functional'.46
Although
a
preference
for such an inversion of the
relation of
sharps
and flats had
already appeared
in a
manuscript
of Christiaan
Huygens
in the late 17th cen-
tury,47
only
in
1760
was the first codification of such a
change
recorded. In that
year,
in
fact,
the
fingering pre-
scribed
by
Delusse for the flute
placed
the
sharps higher
than the flats.48 In the case of
singers
and
violinists,
the
inversion of the relation between the two semitones was
announced ten
years
later
by
the Abbe Roussier
(1770).49
According
to this French
theorist,
it was
brought
about
by
the violinist
[Pierre]
Vachon and
by
the cellist [Jean-
Pierre] Duport.
Thus the
syntonic major 3rd (5:4)
was
enlarged, becoming Pythagorean (81:64).
The statements of Roussier
might anyway
be viewed
with
suspicion, coming
from a
supporter-almost
a
fanatical one-of
Pythagorean
intonation 'of the ancient
Greeks'.
Fortunately
Anton
Bemetzrieder,
a music theor-
ist from Diderot's
circle,
provides
us with
independent
testimony (1776).50
This
author,
while
confirming
that
the
sharps
were
played higher
than the
enharmonically
equivalent
flats,
nevertheless observes:
Le Virtuose hausse le 'diese' tantot
beaucoup,
& tantot
peu;
il
baisse
plus
ou moins les notes 'bemols'; il
joue
la meme note
'bemol'
differemment, suivant
qu'elle
est sixte mineure ou
tonique;
le meme 'diese'
differemment,
suivant
qu'il
est sensible,
tierce
majeure
ou
tonique:
il exerce le meme
empire
sur les notes
naturelles; le 'si' de la seconde corde du violon,
qui
s'accorde avec
le 'mi' de la
chanterelle,
ne
contenteplus
l'oreille sensible & exer-
cee dans l'accord de
sixte,
qu'ilfait
avec le 're' de la troisieme corde
vuide.
The virtuoso raises the
sharp
sometimes more,
sometimes
less;
he
plays
the same flat note
differently according
to whether it is
the minor 6th or the
tonic;
the same
sharp differently
accord-
ing
to whether it is the
leading
note,
major 3rd
or tonic. It is the
same with the natural notes: the B of the second
string
on the
violin, which is tuned to the E of the first
string
does not
please
the sensitive and skilled ear in the chord of the
6th,
which it
makes with the
open D-string.
Thus,
the intonation described
by
Bemetzrieder,
also
unequivocally
of the
Pythagorean type,
has a
strong
expressive-functional component.
Indeed,
alluding
ironically
to
Roussier,
who
continually
returns to the
virtues of the ancient
Greeks,
Bemetzrieder
specifies
that
in the a solo
pieces,
the virtuoso effects all of these
nuances
solely by
instinct,
'without the aid of Greece'.
The
controversy
between the two theorists
very
soon
brought
on one of those
querelles,
even if in a low
key,
so
dear to the French musical scene in the 18th
century.
Alexandre-Theophile
Vandermonde
began by claiming
that the first to be aware of the new
type
of intonation
was
Bemetzrieder,51
while Louis
Dupuy (1781)
asserted
the
priority
of Roussier.52 The
polemic
subsided
only
in
1781,
when Bemetzrieder left Paris
permanently
for
London.
In
Italy
the first evidence of the new
practice
is that of
Abate Eximeno
(1775).53
A little later Galeazzi
(1791)
noticed with
surprise
that
among
the violinists-and
contrary
to what arose from the
syntonic tuning
he
favoured-the semitone between
leading
note and tonic
was small rather than
large.54
In the same
year
Bar-
tolomeo
Campagnoli brought
out his method for
violin,
the first to
prescribe explicitly
a
tuning
of the
Pythago-
rean
type.
However,
he
preserved
the enharmonic dis-
tinction between
sharps
and
flats,
which are made
identical
by
the
temperament only
in a few
exceptional
cases
(illus.lo).55
In the 18th
century
the natural
tendency
to lower the
tuning
of the flats was
probably
one of the factors that
favoured the
attempts
to introduce in
practice
the
seventh
harmonic,
until then considered the diabolus in
musica. To take one
example,
the minor
7th generated by
the seventh harmonic
(whose
ratio is
7:4)
is in fact from
the melodic
point
of view
'compassionable'
almost to
the
point
of caricature. Its character is derived from the
fact that it lies
only
a little more than half a semitone
from the note to which it must
resolve,
in contrast to
what
happens
in the case of its
syntonic
and
Pythagorean
relatives
(illus.nl).
This is the new harmonic relation that
Tartini
proposed
to introduce into normal violin
prac-
tice,
indicating
it
by
a
special sign
to
distinguish
it from
the normal flat
(ex.ni).
Violinists used the seventh har-
monic also to effect the
Neapolitan
6th,
according
to the
testimony
of the Italian
opera composer
Francesco
Bianchi. With reference to
ex.12,
in his
manuscript
he
says:56
Dans les instrumens a chevalet mobile le sib du second accord
naturellement, est un demiton
enharmonique,
et on recule le doit
pour simple
instinct en
jouant.
En
effet
l'harmonie de la comme
produite par
celle de ut et fa
peut
admettre le sib
[ ...]
la
82 EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY
1991
1o Bartolomeo
Campagnoli,
Nuovo metodo della
mecanicaprogressivapersuonare
il violino
(Milano, [1797?], Ricordi). See,
at
the
top
of the
fingerboard,
the
position
of the
temperamento, halfway
between the
sharp
and the
enharmonically equivalent
flat
Proyre,JiOfQn"
L dt
Quitl per ayrtZldu.zonc& enarnmonChe,
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lb mi !,*jb
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gtre
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N.226.
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EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY
1991
- I I L I I I
' '
1..
'
i i 'I
'
l . I
'
t I I I 1
l ' ' I '
. i I i I # i I ! I . I I I # i I i I . I i
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83
equal-temperament
semitones
I I I
Bb
=
1000
I
B = 1100 cents
I
k A
1018
=
syntonic
7th
ii Relative
positions
of the four different
types
of minor
seventh C-Bb. The 'harmonic'
(also
called
'septimal')
7th is
almost
midway
between A and the
syntonic Bb,
and therefore
is
very nearly
a Bbb
996 =
Pythagorean
7th
969 = harmonic 7th
(7: 4)
Ex.ll Giuseppe Tartini, Trattato di musica
(Padua, 1754),
p.127
: J uAr
f
(Ub r j
9 c9 f
J
r
C
r
J
r
Ex.12 Francesco Bianchi, from
chap.7
of his
manuscript
treatise
(late
18th
century)
D
8
3
8
9:
0
)-( 0I o
0CT,
nature veut
que
ce soit sibb
1/7
ce
qui
se
preuve par l'effet admir-
able
que
cette sixthe mineure diminuee
produit
a l'oreille.
On unfretted
string
instruments, the Bb on the second chord is
naturally
an enharmonic semitone, and in
playing
one instinc-
tively
draws the
finger
back. In effect the
harmony
of A
[con-
sidered]
as a
product
of
[the
harmonies
of]
C and F
incorporate
the Bb
[...]
nature wants it to be Bbb
1/7 [=the
seventh
harmonic],
which is obvious from the admirable effect
this small minor 6th has on the ear.
Although during
the
19th century
the favourable
response
to
Pythagorean
intonation became almost ritu-
alistic,
its
practical application
must have been much
influenced
by
considerations of the
expressive aspects
of
intonation. Bernhard
Romberg,
in his well-known
Methode de
violoncelle, a method
approved by
Cherubini
and
Spontini,
claimed for instance that he
played
the
leading
note
higher
in the minor mode than in the
major
mode.57
As for the Italian 'taste' in
intonation,
a valuable
source on the
experimental
side is that of the Roman Fil-
ippo
Natali
(1886),
who
employed
a
frequency
meter of
his own invention. The melodic intonation he
recorded,
although clearly Pythagorean
in
orientation,
remains
difficult to
classify given
that all the
pitches (including
the diatonic
ones)
are
adjusted according
to their func-
tion from moment to moment.58 The meticulous work
accomplished
a few
years
earlier
by
Cornu and Mer-
cadier
(1869)
had
yielded
results which were much more
definite;
the two French
physicists
concluded that the
Pythagorean
and the
syntonic-mean-tone scales,
in
theory mutually
exclusive,
were
compatible:
the former
was
preferred
in melodic
contexts,
the latter in har-
monic ones.59
Moreover,
purely
emotional and habitual factors
must have differentiated the intonation in enharmon-
ically equivalent keys,
as for
example
in
F#
and Gb
major
(which
in the
Pythagorean system,
in relation to their
respective
tonics,
are still controlled
by
the same succes-
sion of
ratios).
In one of their
objective
tests,
Alexandre
and Prevost
(1862)
describe the
following
curious
experiments:
Nous avons
unefois
demande a un musicien dont la delicatesse de
l'oreille est bien connue, de
jouer
un air en ut
majeur; puis
nous
l'avonsprie dejouer
le meme air en
prenantpour tonique
la note
qui
se trouve sur le
piano
entre le fa et le sol naturels. L'air exe-
cute, nous lui demandames dans
quel
ton il venait
dejouer.-En
fa#, repondit-il,
sans hesiter.-Nous lui dimes
qu'il avaitjoue
en
solb. Non,
reprit-il,
c'est
trop
eclatant, c'est du fa#, et non du
solb. Tenez, continua-t-il, voici du solb
majeur,
et il
joua
le
meme air, sans sortir du ton, mais en introduisant
quelques
modifications qui
donnerent de suite a l'air une certaine douceur,
quelque
chose
qui,
di mon
oreille,
semblait se
rapprocher
d'un ton
mineur.6
84
EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY
1991
C=O A =
900
Ik
I _
- - - - - - - I I I .
*I
t
I
_ A _I A
p
.
I
4
Once we asked a musician whose ear was
very
sensitive to
play
a tune in C
major;
then we asked for the same tune in the
key
whose tonic lies between F and G natural on the
piano.
That
completed,
we asked him in what
key
he had
just played.
'In
F#'
he said without
pausing.
We said that he had
played
in Gb.
'No' he
replied
'it is too
brilliant,
it is
F#
and not Gb. Wait' he
continued 'here is Gb
major':
and he
played
the same tune not
changing
the tonic, but
introducing
several modifications that
gave
the
piece
a certain sweetness, which to
my
ears seemed to
bring
it closer to the minor mode.
The orchestra and
tempered
intonation
It is well known that in the late Renaissance and
early
Baroque
band there was a marked
disagreement
between the main families of instruments: lutes and
viols
(tuned
with
equal, 'irregular'
or even so-called
'equal-semitone' temperaments), harpsichords
and
organs (mean-tone
tuning),
and violins
(normally
with
perfect open-string 5ths).
Unlike the
majority
of theor-
ists,
Adriano Banchieri claims that he
successfully
solved
this
problem
in a mass
performed
in Verona in
1607.61
His list of instruments includes
violins,
a consort of vio-
ls,
two
harpsichords,
church
organ,
lutes,
chitarroni and
sackbuts.
Open strings
of the strumenti budellati
(i.e.
with
gut strings)
were tuned in unison with those of the
harpsichord (illus.12):
therefore the
general tuning
of
lutes,
viols and violins was
undoubtedly
mean-tone,
even if this solution
might
have caused
difficulty
in some
unisons of the fretted instruments.62
In
18th-century
Italian
opera,
enharmonic modula-
tions became more and more
fashionable,
thus favour-
ing
the introduction of
equal
semitones
(harpsichords
with
split keys
were
becoming obsolete).
In
any
case,
it is
surprising
that,
completely forgetting
their love for a dis-
tinction betwen flats and
sharps,
the Italians became the
strongest supporters
of
tempered
intonation in ensem-
ble music. The Abbe Roussier
(1782)
writes that at the
Paris
Opera
the
harpsichord
had
already
been banished
(because
of
temperament),
but Nicola
Piccinni,
a
sup-
porter
of
tempered
vocal
intonation,
had it restored to
the orchestra.63 On this
subject
see also Mancini
(1777),
maestro di canto at the
Imperial
Court in
Vienna,
and
Vandermonde
(1780).64
In
any
case,
even in
tempered intonation, orchestral
violinists succeeded in
keeping
most of the diatonic
intervals
pure.
Charles Delezenne
(1853)
showed that
even in his lifetime the
temperament
of the orchestral
violin
players
in Lille was 'mean-semitone': that
is,
the
diatonic
pitches
were left in
syntonic intonation,
but
tones were
split exactly
in two when chromatic notes
were needed. His monochord is the
following:65
(For
the convenience of the
reader,
in this scheme Dele-
zenne's
logarithmic
units have been converted into
cents: 1oo cents
=
1
equally tempered semitone.)
We find further evidence of this kind of
temperament
in a
public experiment organized by
Thomas Salmon
before the
Royal Society
of London
(1705).66
The vio-
linist was
Gasparo
Visconti
(Gasparini),
a
pupil
of
Corelli,
who in those
days performed
in London with
great
success:
To
prove
the
foregoing propositions,
two viols were math-
ematically
set out, with a
particular
fret for each
string,
that
every stop might
be in
perfect
exactness:
upon
these, a Sonata
was
perform'd by
those two most eminent Violists, Mr Freder-
ick and Mr Christian
Stefkins, servants of her
Majesty;
where
by
it
appeared
that the
theory
was certain, since all the
stops
were owned
by
them,
to be
perfect.
And that
they might
be
proved agreeable
to what the best ear and the best hand
per-
forms in modern
practice,
the famous Italian
Signior Gasper-
ini,
plaid
another Sonata
upon
the Violin in consort with
them, wherein the most
compleat harmony
was heard.
(Salmon's
'mathematical' division was similar to Dele-
zenne's 'mean-semitone'.)67 In illus.1o we see that,
though
his scheme was related to
Pythagorean
inton-
ation, Bartolomeo
Campagnoli
had the same rather
naive idea about
temperament.
Conclusions
1 Until at least the mid-18th
century
violinists
played
in
a kind of
'just'
or mean-tone intonation. In fact we have
evidence that
(1)
their
major 3rds
were
pure
and
(2)
sharps
were
played
lower than the
enharmonically
equivalent
flats
(for example,
the D# of a B-D# chord
was lower than the Eb of a C-Eb
chord). Although
flats
and
sharps
as a rule had a distinct intonation in
everyday
performance,
the actual
employment
of the enharmonic
step (e.g.
D#-Eb of the above-mentioned
example)
can
be found
only
in some
experimental compositions.
We
know that in the
majority
of cases
open strings
were
tuned in
pure 5ths (only
a few authors mention tem-
pered 5ths):
thus
performers
tried to avoid
playing
on
the
open strings
not
only
to
preserve
the
homogeneity
of
the
sound,
but also in order to avoid
Pythagorean
intervals.68
2 Towards the middle of the 18th
century
the
sharps
began
to be tuned
higher
then the
enharmonically
equivalent
flats: this habit was due to the new 'func-
tional' and
'dynamic'
role that semitones had in the
modern harmonic-tonal
system (e.g.
the
pull
of the
tonic on the
leading
note and of the sixth
degree
on the
minor 7th
made-respectively-the sharps
to raise and
EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY
1991 85
REGOLA PER
ACCORDARE
STROMENTI DA
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tI Mcz74na inA. Acto y
a. Mezz2ialla in D. Acur e
n tCanto
inG.comepiac: 7
Q i
I
a
4
6
He r ani fa
Sol La Pa
ecttini baffo Bordone Tcnort
_-__ _ ,e- -- d -
Mezzanl, Meanclla, Canto oucro ttauafotm
Organo
suouarino
G
a
86 EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY
1991
12 Adriano
Banchieri,
L'organo
suonarino
(Venezia,
2/1611), p.97
am
the flats to
lower).
In this new
'Pythagorean-functional'
intonation,
the
pitch
of the notes was also conditioned
by strong
emotional factors and
by
the character tra-
ditionally
attributed to the different
keys,
this last one
linked to the mode
(major
or
minor)
and alterations in
the
signature (sharps
or
flats).
In
any
case,
even in the
middle of the
19th century
the
struggle
between
syntonic
and
Pythagorean
had not
completely
faded,
as a
report
of Delezenne
clearly
shows;69
in
1869
Cornu and Mer-
cadier checked
experimentally
that
syntonic
was
pre-
ferred in harmonic contexts and
Pythagorean
in melodic
ones.
3
The
increasing
use of enharmonic transitions also
demanded some kind of
tempering
of the
semitones,
so
that there should be no harmonic distinction between
sharps
and
flats;
in
large 19th-century
orchestras,
string
players
had also to find a
compromise
with fixed-inton-
ation instruments. Both 'mean-semitone' and our mod-
ern
equal temperament
satisfied this
necessity.70
Furthermore,
according
to Robin
Stowell,
'the addition
of vibrato is
nowadays
considered one of the most effec-
tive
ways
of
constantly adjusting string
intonation to
that of an
accompanying
medium,
but there is no evi-
dence of such a
practice being employed'
until the
early
19th century.71
translated
by
Sandra
Mangsen
Patrizio Barbieri is
professor of
electronics and
specializes
in research into the
tuning of
musical instruments. He has
published
a book and a number
of
articles on
temperament
and harmonic
theory.
1
See,
for
example,
J. M. Barbour, 'Just
Intonation Confuted', ML,
xix
(1938), pp.48-6o.
2
C. Shackford, 'Some
Aspects
of
Perception-I.
Sizes of Harmonic
Intervals in Performance', Journal of
Music
Theory,
v
(1961), pp.162-202:
p.185
3 A. Cornu and E. Mercadier, 'Sur les intervalles musicaux', Comp-
tes rendus hebdomadaires des seances de l'Academie des sciences, lxxiv
(1872), pp.321-3: p.322
4
Giuseppe Tartini, Trattato di musica
(Padua, 1754), pp.99-101
('dove
la natura lo ha
posto,
senza
pensare
a
dividerlo').
5 See E. R.
Jacobi, 'Giuseppe
Tartini's
"Regola per
bene accordare il
violino"', Music East and West:
Essays
in Honor
of
Walter
Kaufmann,
ed.
T. Noblitt
(New York, 1981);
P.
Barbieri,
Acustica accordatura e
temper-
amento nell'Illuminismo veneto
(Rome, 1987), p.146*.
6
Benjamin Stillingfleet, Principles
and Power
of Harmony (London,
1771), p.38
7
Carlo Botta, 'Memoire sur la nature des tons et des
sons',
Memoires de l'Academie des sciences litterature et beaux arts de Turin,
xii
(1802), p.2o8
8
Roger
North on music:
Being
a selection
from
his
essays
written
during
the
years c.1695-1728,
ed.
J.
Wilson
(London, 1959), p.234
9
See below under 'The
Baroque
band and
tempered
intonation'
Curious remarks on the
employment
of
open strings
are made
by:
Pie-
tro
Signoretti,
Methode contenant les
principes
de la
musique
et du vio-
lon
(The Hague, 1777) i, pp.8-9.
This author
presents
a diatonic
ascending
scale,
from the bottom
g
to
b",
in which all the four
open
strings
are
employed;
in the same scale,
descending,
on the
contrary
he
avoids
using
the
open E,
A and D
strings.
These are his
explanations:
'Il
faut observer
que
les trois Notes a vide, c'est-a-dire le Re, le La et le Mi,
n'ont lieu
qu'en
montant la
Game;
car en la descendant,
ces trois Notes
se font du
quatrieme doigt:
la raison est
parce qu'en
montant la Game,
on va de corde en corde
plus
sonore
par
la
proportion
de
grosseur
et de
tension. Par
consequent
ces trois Notes a vide, dont le son a
plus
d'eclat, se marient mieux avec les suivantes; au contraire en descendant
la Game,
on
passe
de corde en corde moins sonore, dont le son est de
plus
en
plus grave.
Il en resulteroit
que
ces trois Notes a vide seroient
trop criardes,
et feroient un tres-mauvais effet, ce a
quoi
on remedie en
les faisant du
quatrieme doigt,
dont le son n'est
pas
si criard, and
par
consequent
se
rapproche plus
de celui des autres Notes suivantes.'
lO Francesco Galeazzi, Elementi
teorico-pratici
della musica, con un
saggio
sopra l'arte di suonare il violino,
i
(Rome, 1791), pp.100-22
"
Alexander Malcolm,
A Treatise
of Musick
(Edinburgh, 1721), p.322
12 Charles E.-J. Delezenne, 'Memoire sur les valeurs
numeriques
de
la
gamme,
Memoires de la Societe des sciences, de
l'agriculture
et des arts
de Lille,
v
(1826-7), pp.1-57: pp.38-9
13
Hubert Le Blanc,
Defense
de la basse de viole
(Amsterdam, 1740),
PP-54-5, 136
14
Jacques-Alexandre
Charles, Cours de
physique (Paris, 1802), Paris,
Bibliotheque
de l'Institut, Ms 2104-Piece 17, pp.274-8.
See also Jean-
Baptiste Biot, Traite de
physique experimentale
et
mathematique,
ii
(Paris, 1816), p.72.
15
Jean Le Rond d'Alembert and Dortous de Mairan, Systheme
de
musique
et de
temperament
de Mr Esteve (Paris, 31
March
1751), Paris,
Archives de l'Academie des
sciences, Registres
des Proces-verbaux,
T.
70
and Pochette de seance
O6
Malcolm,
A Treatise, p.321.
17
Frederic
Hesselgren,
Etude sur les intervalles
harmoniques (Turin,
1903), p.14
18
Ambrose Warren, The Tonometer
(Westminster, 1725), p.15
19
[Jean Dumas],
'Memoire sur l'harmonie
temperee
et son
appli-
cation au clavecin', Memoires de
mathematique
et de
physique rediges
a
l'Observatoire de Marseille, (1756), pp.84-106: pp.103-4
20
[Du Perron], 'Description
dans l'intervalle d'une octave du
sys-
teme du
partage
de la
dixseptieme majeure parfaite
en
quintes egales,
et son
emploi
dans la tablature de
quelques
instrumens de
musique'
Journal des scavans
(1769), pp.681-94.
For the identification of this
author see P. Barbieri, 'L'intonazione violinistica, da Corelli al Roman-
ticismo' Studi musicali, xix
(1990),
n.21.
21
D.
Boyden,
'Prelleur,
Geminiani and
just intonation', JAMS,
iv
(1951), pp.202-19; J.
M. Barbour, 'Violin intonfation in the 18th century',
JAMS,
v
(1952), pp.224-34: p.233
22
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Generation
harmonique (Paris, 1737),
pp.91, 102-3
23 See
n.19
above. With reference to the
quarter-comma temper-
ament, he
says 'que
dans l'accord usite de ces Instruments
[violin
et
violoncello],
les
Quintes
sont affoiblies
[...] J'invite les amateurs de la
Theorie, a reiterer ces
experiences,
et i observer
que
dans les cordes
minces,
dont la
grosseur peut
etre
negligee,
l'affoiblissement des
Quintes
ne laisse
pas
de se manifester sensiblement.'
24
Jean-Laurent de
Bethizy, Exposition
de la theorie et de la
pratique
de la
musique (Paris, 2/1764), pp.127-8; Pierre-Joseph Roussier,
Memoire sur la
musique
des anciens
(Paris, 1770), p.241
25
Antonio Eximeno, Dubbio
(Rome, 1775), p.72
26
New
Instructionsfor
the violoncello
(London, C.1795), p.9
27
Luigi Picchianti, Principj generali
e
ragionati
della musica teorico-
pratica (Florence, 1834), p.101
28
J.-C. Petit,
Apologie
de l'excellence de la
musique:
Avec un nouveau
sisteme, et methode demonstrative
pour
accorder le clavecin et
l'orgue
(London, 1740), pp.26-32 (French-English text)
EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY
1991 87
29
Trattato teorico
pratico
del sistema armonico,
manuscript by
anonymous
author
(c.183o), Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana,
Ms.It.Cl.
iv.1848=11661.
The
chapter
'De' tuoni' has been
published
in
Barbieri, Acustica,
pp.261*-2*.
30
Vincenzo Galilei,
Dialogo
... della musica antica et della moderna
(Florence, 1581), pp.30-31; Galilei, Discorso ... intorno
all'opere
di mes-
ser
Gioseffo
Zarlino da
Chioggia (Florence, 1589), pp.132-3
31
Filippo
Fodera, Su I'arte di suonare il violino
(ms.
dated Palermo,
1834, Palermo, Biblioteca Comunale, ms.
Qq.
G.
102), pp.50-51
32 Pierfrancesco Tosi, Opinioni
de' cantori
antichi,
e moderni
(Bologna, 1723),
p.12
33
Giovanfrancesco Becattelli, 'Lettera critico-musica
[...] sopra
due
difficult& nella facolta musica da un moderno autore
praticate (Prato,
15 April 1722)' Supplementi
al Giornale de' letterati d'Italia,
iii
(1726),
pp.1-55: pp.31-2
34
Anicot 1'ain&,
Principes
de violon
(Paris, c.18oo), p.4
35
Carlo Gervasoni, Nuova teoria di musica
(Parma, 1812), p.36
36 Melchiorre Balbi,
'Appendici'
in Antonio
Calegari,
Trattato del
sistema armonico
(Padua, 1829), pp.127-8
37
All transcribed in P. Barbieri,
'I
temperamenti
ciclici da Vicentino
(1555)
a Buliowski
(1699):
teoria e pratica archicembalistica',
L'organo,
xxi
(1983), pp.129-2o8; Barbieri, 'La "Sambuca Lincea" di Fabio Colon-
na e il "Tricembalo" di
Scipione Stella',
La musica a
Napoli
durante il
Seicento, ed. D. A. D'Alessandro and A. Ziino
(Rome, 1987),
pp.167-216.
38
See P.
Barbieri, 'Cembali enarmonici e
organi negli
scritti di Atha-
nasius Kircher. Con documenti inediti su Galeazzo Sabbatini', Enciclo-
pedismo
in Roma barocca, ed. M. Casciato, M. G. Ianniello and M.
Vitale
(Venice, 1986), pp.ill-28: p.117; Barbieri, 'Juan Caramuel Lob-
kowitz
(1606-1682):
Uber die musikalischen
Logarithmen
und das
Problem der musikalischen
Temperatur',
Musiktheorie,
ii
(1987),
pp.145-68: p.157.
39
Transcribed from Kircher's
Musurgia
universalis: see Barbieri,
'Cembali enarmonici', pp.119-20.
40
Charles Hebert, Traite de l'harmonie des sons,
(Bologna, 1733)
(London,
British
Library,
Ms.
Add.6137), p.374
41
HWbert, Traite, p.66
42
Charles-Henry
de Blainville, Histoire
generale critique
et
philolo-
gique
de la
musique (Paris, 1767), p.171
43
J.-Ph. Rameau, Demonstration du
principe
de l'harmonie
(Paris,
1750), p.95
44
See M. A. Mabbett, The Italian madrigal, 1620-1655 (PhD Diss., U.
of
London, 1989), pp.130-31.
45 Giordano Riccati,
letter to F. A.
Vallotti,
dated Castelfranco
Veneto, 30 April 1736 (Padua,
Biblioteca Antoniana, Ms.A.vi.539, fasc.8,
ff.6-6c.),
published
in Barbieri, Acustica, pp.137*-40*.
46 See
J.
H. Chesnut, 'Mozart's
Teaching
of Intonation', JAMS,
xxx
(1977), pp.254-71:p.256
47 C.
Huygens,
Oeuvres
completes,
xx
(The Hague, 1940), p.74
48
See Pierre Sechet, 'Reflexions' in
J.J. Quantz,
Essai ...
(Berlin,
1752;
Paris
r/1975),
p.1o.
49
Roussier, Memoire sur la
musique
des anciens, p.214
50
Antoine Bemetzrieder, Traite de
musique (Paris, 1776), pp.xxiii-
xxix. The same remarks had been made in
1770 by Jean-Jacques
Rou-
sseau: see N. Zaslaw, 'The
Compleat
Orchestral Musician', EM,
vii
(1979), pp.46-57.
51
See
[Jean-Benjamin
de Laborde], Memoires sur les
proportions
musicales, le
genre enharmonique
des
grecs
et celui des modernes
(Paris,
1781).
The recueil contains the 'Observations'
by Alexandre-Theophile
Vandermonde
(pp. 39ff.),
followed
by
the
'Remarques
de M. l'Abbe
Roussier sur les Observations de M. Vandermonde'
(pp.42ff.).
52
Louis Dupuy, review of Laborde's Memoires
(see n.51 above),
Journal des scavans, (1781), pp.707-13
53
Eximeno, Dubbio, p.53
54
Galeazzi, Elementi, p.122
55
On the
subject,
see also
Boyden,
'Prelleur, Geminiani...
'
p.212,
and R. Stowell,
Violin
Technique
and Performance Practice in the Eight-
eenth and
Early
Nineteenth Centuries
(Cambridge, 1985), pp.248, 253-4.
56 Francesco Bianchi, De I'attraction
harmonique (late
18th
century)
(Florence,
Biblioteca del Conservatorio di
musica, Ms.B.2400), Chap-
ter
VII, art.7
57 Bernhard Heinrich
Romberg,
Methode de violoncelle
(Paris, 1840),
pp.20, 127.
58
Filippo Natali, II
Diapason
differenziale (Rome, 1886), pp.74-83.
As far as embellishments are concerned, he noticed that the notes of a
turn
(gruppetto)
underwent a sort of
gravitational
attraction towards
their central note and thus their intonation was much closer than
normal to this last note; the same can be said about the
appoggiature
(intoned
more like a messa di voce than a real
semitone).
59
Alfred Cornu and Ernest Mercadier, 'Sur les intervalles musicaux',
Comptes
rendus hebdomadaires des seances de l'Academie des sciences,
lxviii
(1869), pp.301-8
60 M. Alexandre and P. Prevost, De la theorie
mathematique
de la
musique (Geneva, 1862), p.21
61
Adriano Banchieri, Conclusioni nel suono
dell'organo (Bologna,
1609), pp.49-55
62
See P. Barbieri, 'Conflitti di intonazione tra cembalo, liuto e archi
nel "concerto" italiano del Seicento' Studi Corelliani, iv
(Florence,
1990), pp.
123-53.
63
P.,J. Roussier, Memoire sur la nouvelle
harpe
de M. Cousineau luth-
ier de la Reine (Paris, 1782), pp.36-7
64 Giambattista Mancini,
Riflessioni pratiche
sul canto
figurato,
(Milan, 3/1777), p.81; Alexandre-Theophile Vandermonde, Second
memoire sur un nouveau
systeme
d'harmonie
(Paris, [1780]),
p.7
65 Ch.
E.-J. Delezenne, 'Sur la
transposition',
Memoires de la Societe
des sciences, de
l'agriculture
et des arts de Lille,
xxxi
(1853), pp.24-90:
p.27
66 Thomas Salmon, 'The
Theory
of Music,
Philosophical
Trans-
actions
of
the
Royal Society,
xxiv
(1705), pp.2072-2100oo: p.2073
67
For a discussion of Salmon's
tuning
and other references con-
cerning
the 'mean-semitone'
temperament
see M.
Lindley,
Lutes, Viols
and
Temperaments (Cambridge, 1984), p.68,
and Barbieri, 'Conflitti di
intonazione, 1.3.3.
68
Remarks on
tuning
in
pure 5ths
can be found in Stowell, Violin
Technique, pp.250-53,
and in Barbieri, 'L'intonazione violinistica,
nn.36, 48.
69
Ch.-E.-J. Delezenne, 'Sur les
principes
fondamentaux de la mus-
ique', Memoires de la Societe des sciences, de
l'argiculture
et des arts de
Lille, xxvi
(1848), pp.39-128.
See also the
separately published
version
of the same memoir
(Lille, 1848), p.31.
70
About
equal temperament, suppported by Spohr,
see Stowell,
Violin
Technique, p.253. Anyway,
when
playing
in a
string quartet, per-
formers did not like
tempered
intonation; in this
regard,
in
1876
the
Genoese music historian Cornelio Desimoni mentioned the contrast
between the
pianoforte's equal temperament
and the 'armonia
pura
del
quartetto
o simili stromenti ad arco': see M. Tarrini,
'Cornelio
Desimoni (1813-1899),
Note d'archivio
per
la storia musicale, v
(1987),
supplement, p.59.
71
Stowell, Violin
Technique p.254.
For further evidence on the sub-
ject
of violin intonation, see P. Barbieri, 'L'intonazione violinistica.
Early
Music
May
1991
Patrick
Macey
on
Josquin
Daniel Leech-Wilkinson on Dowland
Nicholas
Temperley
on
Haydn
88 EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY 1991