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Dietrich Bartel, Andreas Werckmeister’s final tuning: the path to equal temperament, Early Music, Volume 43, Issue 3, August 2015, Pages 503–512, https://doi.org/10.1093/em/cav047
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Abstract
Discussions regarding Baroque keyboard tunings normally include the acknowledgement that late 17th- and 18th-century musicians employed a variety of unequal temperaments that allowed them to play in all keys. While each of the individual keys featured unique tuning characteristics, allowing the player to use all the keys, the more commonly used ones featured purer 3rds than the less common chromatic ones. Figuring prominently in these discussions are Andreas Werckmeister’s various suggestions for tempered tunings, which he introduced most thoroughly in his Musicalische Temperatur. However, this was not Werckmeister’s last word on the subject. In fact, the Musicalische Temperatur is an early publication, and the following decade would see him publish numerous other works, a number of which speak on the subject of temperament. Of particular interest in this regard are Hypomnemata Musica, Die Nothwendigsten Anmerckungen (specifically the undated second edition), Erweiterte und verbesserte Orgel-Probe, Harmonologia Musica and, finally, Musicalische Paradoxal-Discourse. Throughout these publications Werckmeister increasingly championed equal temperament. An increasing concern with theological speculation becomes apparent, resulting in a theological justification taking precedence over a musical one in his argument for equal temperament. This article traces Werckmeister’s path to equal temperament by examining his references to it in his publications and identifying the supporting arguments for his insistence on equal temperament.
