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LXXVIH. Reply to Mr. M.'s Remarks on Mr. Smyth's 

 Comparative Table in vol. xxxv. p. 488. By Mr. Smyth, 



To Mr. Tilloch. 



Sir, JL shall esteem it a favour if you will insert the fol- 

 lowing answer to the gentleman who signs himself M. in 

 your Magazine for September. 



Mr. M~ says it is " curious that Mr, S. should presume 

 organ-tuners will continue to tune as their ancestors did 

 before them, till irrefragable arguments are produced to 

 prove the superiority of Kiruberger's temperament." Here, 

 I confess, 1 stand convicted of inconclusive reasoning. 

 The fact, however, I imagine to be this: an organ, with 

 compound stops', will not admit of the major thirds being 

 tuned sufficiently sharp to ameliorate, in any considerable 

 degree, those greatly tempered chords which are called 

 wolves; of which I wish the breed were extinct. 



I am glad to find that Mr. M. agrees with me in opinion, 

 thai Kirnberger's is one of the worst unequal temperaments. 

 Had Mr. M. stated in definite terms his own favourite sy- 

 stem, it should have been submitted to examination. 



Mr. M. says, " perhaps for the organ a good unequal 

 temperament is preferable to the Isotonic." I was not ig- 

 norant that even for this instrument the Isotonic has had 

 its advocates; and Mr. M. presents to my view the names 

 of Couperin,Marpurg, Rameau, Cavallo, professor Chladni, 

 and many other eminent philosophers. Now, not being a 

 philosopher myself, I take the liberty of asking one plarn 

 question, which relates 1 solely to the temperament of the 

 organ : — Can any man living prove, that there ever was one 

 organ in Christendom tuned according to the equal tem- 

 perament, in consequence of a peremptory order from any 

 one of these gentlemen, and suffered to remain in that state ? 

 This is coming to the point, 



A person disposed to cavil might raise arithmetical and 

 philosophical doubts whether a real equal temperament has 

 ever been heard. 



1 wish Mr. M. would inform us, and explain precisely, 

 what the system is which he tunes so dexterously on his 

 harp, by the melody alone, without striking consonances. 

 Had his instrument so tuned been intended for melody 

 alone, this mode of tuning might answer the purpose; but, 

 as each of the strings has various relations to other strings, 

 and a temperament of a diatonic interval, too small to pro- 



2 E 2 duce 



