Well Temperaments: Equal; Selecting A Temperament - Rodgers 835 Manual

Werckmeister I and III: Andreas Werckmeister experimented with
temperaments in the latter part of the 17th century.
Werckmeister I he further refined the Mean-Tone temperament. In
Werckmeister III, four tones are practically tuned identical to Equal
Temperament (C, D#, F# and A).
Young I and II: Young Temperaments offer further refinements to
the Mean-Tone model, except with slightly higher pitched sharps.
Equal: Equal Temperament is the modern standard which utilizes a
succession of 12 semitones of equal size, allowing performance in
all keys successfully. The fifths are slightly narrowed and the
upward thirds are considerably sharp, but unlimited modulation
from key to key is possible.
 SELECTING A TEMPERAMENT:
1. Press and hold the SET piston.
2. Turn the Select Knob counter clockwise (left) until the Console Display reads:
3. Release SET.
4. Rotate the Alpha Dial until the desired temperament appears.
5. Press General Cancel to return to the Transposer menu.
Note: When the organ is turned off, the temperament will return to Equal.
Part of the personality of an individual pipe organ relates to the steadiness of the wind
supply to the pipes. Because air is an elastic medium, there is some amount of "give" in the
wind supply of every pipe instrument. Some organs exhibit more unsteadiness than others
according to the type of wind regulators used (single or multiple reservoirs, schwimmer
regulators, etc.). A small amount of unsteadiness in the wind helps the listener to identify the
sound as that of a wind-blown instrument, although too much can be distracting. Certain
types of music, though, seem to gain charm from a less-than-perfect wind system.
Another characteristic of pipe organs involves changes in pitch which occur in individual
pipes when playing large numbers of pipes together. These pitch changes are due both to
variations in wind pressure as the wind demand becomes greater and to the influence of the
sound from neighboring pipes. This latter effect is greatest upon large-scale flute voices and
least upon narrow-scaled string voices. Even though this results in significant detuning, the
human ear seems to perceive instead an increase in ensemble effect.
Rodgers' exclusive Digital Dynamic Wind (patent pending) emulates these characteristics
by modeling the behavior of pipe organ wind regulating devices and the response of pipes to a
T E M P E R A M E N T
E Q U A L
DIGITAL DYNAMIC WIND
18
In
™