Explanation of an Experiment on Tuning. $59 
less; if it were necessary to have recourse to such a me- 
thod. But, although I have said that the majority of prac- 
tical tuners are not guided by calculation, and that therefore 
such persons are not completely qualified to determine which 
is the best of the numerous unequal temperaments already 
published; I have nowhere affirmed that they tune by the 
melody. Nor have I ever imagined that the differences of 
monochord-lengths are proper measures of the intervals. 
This person boldly asserts, but for what purpose [ cannot 
discover, that “tuners zever resort to the melody in tuning.” 
How then, let me ask him, is a tuner enabled to perceive 
whether the * conchord” which he is tempering be a filth 
ora fourth? It is probable that his answer will not be 
hostile to what I have before advanced... [ once saw a pro 
fessional tuner much embarrassed in a first attempt to adjust 
the bi-equal thirds* of the Stanhope temperament; not 
perceiving, till he had'recoiirse to the melody, that one of 
his thirds was beating*flath\ bjs 7 bo 
It is with most tuners. by profession as with the com- 
poser Grétry ; who, after declaring himself ignorant of cal- 
culation, and describing his method of tuning by thirds, 
by fourths; fifths, sixchs, and octaves, adds, ** C’est alors 
un tempérament de sentiment qui guide, loreille, et non 
celui de calcul.” (Essais, vol. il. p.. 362). . Their rule is 
the same as Keller’s; namely, to make all the IIIds as 
sharp, and all the Viks as flat, as the ear will permit.—See 
Holder’s Harmony, 8vo,, 17313 and Catalisano’s Gram- 
matica Armonica, 1781, p.78 and p. 156. 
In my last communication, F-750 instead of F749, 1s 
an error of transcription, ° The following asterisk should 
have referred (as well as the first) to Chladni’s Acoustics, 
wherein the lengtlis ‘for ‘the | equal temperament are: 
C1.00000, Cx or Db'94357, 0389090, 'D+54090, E79370, 
F74915, Fx70710,'G66742, Gs62996, A59461, Av56123, 
B52973, C50000, p.37,§ 26.) 
The monochord we employed was constructed to deter- 
mine the lengths ‘Of Wire) more minutely than your corre- 
spondent seems td have supposed; but owing to an acci- 
dent, it could not be depended’ on to more than three places 
of decimals: thrée were therefore preferred to more, having 
only the semblance of greater accuracy. From this, he 
very logically concluded that we were quite ignorant of bis 
seeming protundities. 
To conclude, | leave Mr. Smyth to the arrangement, 4s 
* See Mr. Farey’s article “ Bi equal,” in the Edinburgh Encyclop. vol, ii- 
p- 497. (1811.) 
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