Examples of Historical Musical Tuning

Examples of Historical Musical Tunings

produced by Erich Neuwirth

The following examples demonstrate how tuning (also called musical temperament) impacts the musical character of a piece.
I use them regularly in my presentations.

You need Quicktime Player (or another streaming client handling mp4 audio streams) to be able to listen to these pieces.

These are the pieces you can hear:

Guillaume de Machaut (1284-1370): Kyrie from Messe de Nostre Dame

Pure temperament
Pythagorean temperament
Meantone temperament
Equal temperament

Heinrich Isaac (1450-1517): Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen

Pure temperament
Pythagorean temperament
Meantone temperament
Equal temperament

John Bull (1562-1628): Allemande

Pure temperament
Pythagorean temperament
Meantone temperament
Equal temperament

Franz Schubert (1797-1828): Ländler in Des

Pure temperament
Pythagorean temperament
Meantone temperament
Equal temperament

For more information about the underlying theory see
Erich Neuwirth
Musical Temperaments
Springer Verlag
ISBN 3-211-83040-5
Book+CDROM with some hundred sound examples

and two other books containing articles about this topic.

You can also order these books at Amazon Germany
Musical Temperaments
Mathematics and Arts
Mathematics and Music

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