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XXXII. On the Stanhope Temperament of the Musical 

 Scale. By Mr. John Farey. 



To Mr. Tilloch. 



When men of rank and fortune, like earl Stanhope, un- 

 dertake the investigation of difficult points in the physical 

 sciences, whatever success may attend their labours, then- 

 names can hardly fail of attracting attention to the subjects 

 on which they employ their tak-nts and pens. Such I am 

 happy to observe to be the case at present ; Dr. John Wall 

 Callcott, an eminent musical writer, having announced his 

 intention of publishing a work shortly on the Stanhope tem- 

 perament, in order to point out the numerous advantages of 

 that mode of tuning keyed instruments ; while others appear 

 to be investigating the nature and peculiar properties of mu- 

 sical intervals with a depth of research which has, unfortu- 

 nately for the science, been hitherto very rare among prac- 

 tical musicians. In my letter in your November Magazine 

 (vol. xxvi, p. 172), on Mr. Hawkes's Treatise on Musk, I 

 hinted at the diversity of terms or notation, in which musical 

 intervals have been usually expressed by the writers who 

 have treated on those minuter parts, or intervals, necessary 

 to be considered in tempering the scale ; since which I have 

 carefully re-pemsed lord Stanhope's treatise in your Sep- 

 tember Magazine (vol. XXV. pages 291 to 312) ; and having 

 found it necessary to make several calculations and arrange- 

 ments of the intervals which compose the Stanhope septave, 

 or douzeave, as his lordship's system of twelve intervals in 

 an octave might have been called, I am induced to trouble 

 you with them, hoping that they will aid and facilitate the 

 inquiries, which I have above alluded to, into the merits and 

 defects of this mode of dividing the octave. 



My lord Stanhope, from being furnished with a very ca- 

 pital and nicely-divided monochord, and with three grand 

 piano-fortes of the very best construction, (pagci 312, 292, 

 and 304,) for making his experiments on the musical in- 

 tervals, appears to have adopted that mode of expressing 



Vol. 27. No. 107. April I8O7. N the 



