166 Remarks on Systems of Tuning. 



weight, because (and I consider his " palatable dishes*') 

 they are mere matters of taste. And it is curious that he 

 should presume " organ-tuners will continue to tune in the 

 same way as their ancestors did before them, till arguments 

 are produced to prove the superiority of Kirnberger's tem- 

 perament" to theirs; for a person but slightly acquainted 

 with the subject might from this suppose there are no bet- 

 ter unequal temperaments. However, there are others 

 which, for my own part, I do decidedly prefer. Un- 

 doubtedly Kirnberger's system is one of the worst ; and in 

 the ancient system (as M. de Bethizy observes, Exposition, 

 p. 130, 1764), the sounds in some of the scales are so 

 altered that they are insupportable to a delicate ear. The 

 equal temperament has been preferred by Couperin, Mar- 

 purg, Rameau, Cavallo, professor Chladni, and many other 

 eminent philosophers and musicians: it is certainly the 

 best for piano fortes ; but for the organ perhaps a good 

 unequal temperament is better, on account of the loudness 

 of the beats. 



As one of your musical readers, I am obliged to Mr. S. 

 for undergoing "the drudgery of calculation" on our ac- 

 count : he would still further merit our thanks by sending 

 to your valuable Magazine tables of the numbers of vibra- 

 tions, the monochord-lengths, and the beats in fifteen se- 

 conds, belonging to the other unequal temperaments that 

 have been proposed ; and I think he ought to send a table 

 for the common system, as the chief end of his communi- 

 cation seems to be, to compare it with Kirnberger's, and to 

 show its superiority *. 



As to the generality of tuners (and many of them are 

 very conceited men), I believe they know but little or no- 

 thing of harmonics. They learn one method by ear only, 

 and remember it as they would a tune, without knowing a 

 rule on which either is founded. That the ear and the 

 memory alone are sufficient, after proper exercise, I am 

 well convinced ; for I can tune my harp with the same ac- 

 curacy diatonically and without sounding two strings at a 

 time, as it can be tuned in the usual way by consonances ; 

 and I have a pupil, only twelve years old, whose ear and 

 remembrance of sounds are so accurate, that she can, while 

 in a different room from the instrument, name any num- 



• It would be an improvement of the first column of these tables, to foN 

 low the German tabiature, described in art. 34 of Dr. Callcott's Musical 

 Grammar, 2d edit. 1809. Mr. S. in some future communication, would 

 much oblige me by stating precisely what he means by the terra Wolf'm 

 tuning. 



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