Viscount CM-100 User Manual page 35

VISCOUNT
CM-100
The procedure for modifying these parameters is easy and intuitive:
Use the cursor
start to flash), then turn the encoder to enter the value you require.
Remember that turning the encoder clockwise increases the value, while turning it anticlockwise
decreases the value.
The instrument will adopt the value entered and automatically save it in the current finish.
In the "natural" tuning system, based on the acoustic phenomenon of harmonic sounds, two important musical
intervals, the major third and the perfect fifth, cannot be made to coexist in the "pure" state (i.e. beat-free).
Therefore, over the centuries a variety of compromise solutions known as TEMPERAMENTS have been
invented and realised. These give priority to one or the other interval by modifying them in various ways.
In the ancient world and the Middle Ages, until the last few decades of the 17th Century, the "Pythagorean"
tuning system, in which the fifths were retained perfectly pure, was in use.
particularly unattractive in sound, and was therefore treated as a dissonance. However, the music of the time
was mainly monodic, and the early forms of vocal and instrumental polyphony made a great deal of use of the
interval of a fifth. With the early Renaissance, and the start of the great flowering of vocal polyphony, the
interval of a major third gradually came to be heard as consonant and not dissonant. The instruments with fixed
tuning, such as the organ and harpsichord, gradually adapted to this situation by adopting a system of
temperament known as "Meantone", which gave the major third priority over the fifth. This temperament is
particularly important because it was the temperament in normal use in Europe in the 16th and 17th Centuries,
until the early 18th Century. Here are the six temperaments available on the CM-100
WERCKMEISTER: This temperament, invented by the organist and musical theorist Andreas Werckmeister, is
recommended for performing the German musical repertoire of the late 1600s
KIRNBERGER:This temperament, developed by Johann Philipp Kirnberger, pupil of J.S. Bach, is suitable for
playing the German Baroque composers and the works of Bach.
KELLNER:Herbert Anton Kellner, born in Prague in 1938, studied physics, mathematics and astronomy at the
University of Vienna. In 1975, his research enabled him to identify the unequal temperament of the same name,
used by Bach for his "Well-Tempered Clavier". Suitable for 18th Century German music and the music of Bach
in particular.
VALLOTTI: This Italian temperament invented by Francescantonio Vallotti was later taken up in England by
Thomas Young. It can be used effectively for the Italian 18th Century repertoire, and also for the English
repertoire of the same period.
CHAUMONT (1696) :It is based on six pure major thirds: D-F# / E-G# / F-A / G-B / A-C# / C-E (the last one
slightly diminished). It can be used mainly for French music composed between the end of the 17th and the
beginning of the 18th Century.
MEANTONE:
- 8 pure major thirds: E flat - G / B flat - D / F - A / C - E / G - B / D - F # / A - C# / E - G.
- 4 unusable major thirds (diminished fourths): B - D# / F# - A# / C# - E# / A flat - C.
- 1 fifth known as the "wolf" (very dissonant extended fifth): A flat - E flat.
- Highly irregular chromatic scale (meaning that chromatic compositions are given a very distinctive voice)
- Keys usable with this temperament: C maj. / D maj. / G maj. / A maj. / B flat maj. and the relative minors.
PYTHAGOREAN: In this temperament, all the fifths are natural except for the "wolf" fifth, in the interval A flat
- E flat, which is greatly diminished.
It dates from the Middle Ages up to the 15th century, and can therefore be used for compositions of that
period.
.
, keys to locate on the value of the parameter you wish to modify (the field will
, ,
A BRIEF NOTE ON TEMPERAMENTS
Page 10
Pipe Organ Module
The resulting major third was