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Path: utzoo!linus!bbncca!keesan
From: keesan@bbncca.ARPA (Morris Keesan)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: J. S. Bach
Message-ID: <441@bbncca.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 5-Jan-84 10:45:06 EST
Article-I.D.: bbncca.441
Posted: Thu Jan  5 10:45:06 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 6-Jan-84 02:08:22 EST
References: <456@ihuxq.UUCP>
Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma.
Lines: 24

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>. . . Newton, who was so far ahead of his time that he had to
>formalize a new system (calculus) to express his concepts.
>Thus it was with JSB and the well-tempered scale.
>
>ken perlow       *****   *****
-------------------------------

    I think you have it backwards in the case of Bach.  I believe someone else
invented the well-tempered scale, as the end result of an evolutionary process
that included previous attempts such as mean tuning, and that Bach was one who
immediately saw the possibilities inherent in the system.  The Well-Tempered
Clavier was thus a response to the well-tempered scale, rather that the impetus
for it, and can be seen as analogous to a child  playing with a new toy.
Someone with more musical scholarship than I should correct me if I'm wrong.

    More similar to Newton inventing calculus is the case of the 20th century
composer Harry Partch, who was dissatisfied with the tempered scale and
invented a large number of new instruments so that he could physically realize
his ideas regarding "just intonation".
-- 
					Morris M. Keesan
					{decvax,linus,wjh12}!bbncca!keesan
					keesan @ BBN-UNIX.ARPA