Kirnberger temperament

Johann Philipp KirnBerger published from the year 1766 several tuning systems for keyboard instruments. They belong to the group of well-tempered moods, and allow for the game in all keys, each key has its own character. The following characteristics are common to all:

  • They shall revive Johann Sebastian Bach's vocal practice
  • They are relatively easy to tune
  • They are strongly oriented towards pure intervals
  • They do not fit into the development at the same stage mood

The Kirnberger moods have a pure major third CE, and perfect fifths from E up to F # and C down to C sharp. This results in a scaled down by the schism fifth Fis - Cis. They differ only in the mood of the four fifths C to E (ie, CG, GD, DA and AE), ie the result in the three notes G, D and A.

In the first version from 1766 (now referred to as KirnBerger I ) are the fifths CG, GD and AE pure, the resulting DA Quint is therefore reduced by the full syntonic comma.

In the same source he refers to the possibility that Quinten DA and AE to reduce each by half the syntonic comma, which is indeed harder to tune because now the voices pure intervals no longer sufficient, but by defusing the extremely small Quint of KirnBerger I results in a better sound reproduction. (now KirnBerger II). This variant is also found in 1771 in his art of pure movement.

Graphical representations of

KirnBerger II mood

C ----- G ----- D ------ A ----- E ----- H ---- F # ---- C # ---- As ( Gis ) ---- It ----- B ----- F ----- C    rr -1 / 2 -1 / 2 rr - rrrrr sch | _______reine Terz_______ |       | ________reine Terz_______ |              | _______reine Terz_______ |                                 | __________pythag. Terz_______ |                                       | _________pythag. Terz_________ |                                              | _________pythag. Terz________ | "r " is used in this graph for "pure", " -1 / 2 " for the narrowed by half the syntonic comma fifths and " sh" for the restricted to the schism fifth. The thirds CE, GH and D- Fis are pure, the thirds H- Dis, Fis -Ais (B ) and Des ( Cis )-F Pythagorean (very large), the sizes of the remaining thirds in between.

KirnBerger III mood

C ----- G ----- D ------ A ----- E ----- H ---- F # ---- C # ---- As ( Gis ) ---- It ----- B ----- F ----- C   -1 / 4 -1 / 4 -1 / 4 -1 / 4 rr - rrrrr sch | _______reine Terz_______ | | __________pythag. Terz_______ |                                       | _________pythag. Terz_________ |                                              | _________pythag. Terz________ | In an undated letter to Johann Nikolaus Forkel, he mentions the distribution of the syntonic comma on all four fifths C to E in different variants, with the uniform reduction of all four fifths today is called the KirnBerger III. This mood is on many historical keyboard instruments (in particular organs ) applied because it is oriented closer than the Werckmeister. The "good" music with few accidentals are preferred and a key characteristic is preserved. In addition, it is easy to put on.

The numbering of the moods is not from KirnBerger. In many cases, it was claimed she did not come from his time, but had been introduced as part of the rediscovery of historical moods in the 20th century as an analogy to the older Werckmeister. But in fact already used the music theorist Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg this numbering at least for the first two moods.

Historical classification

Kirnberger voice instructions come from a time in which different tuning systems existed side by side: meantone systems in particular organs, well-tempered tunings, which certainly constituted the principal component, and the equal temperament, which became important in the late 18th century more.

At the time of Kirnberger publications were highly differentiated and complicated moods (for example, Johann Georg Neidhardt, Georg Andreas Sorge ). There was a trend towards equal temperament. Compared so that Kirnberger instructions assume simply built and strong ungleichstufig. The experts disagree on the assessment of those facts. The following is partly contradictory explanations are given here:

  • The simplicity of the voting process should focus on, so even novice musicians to tune their instrument itself.
  • His moods have their own qualities and are independent, so do not follow fashion trends.
  • His moods are " unsuccessful " attempts to describe the real-world scenes with simple means.

Practical classification

The KirnBerger II mood is a possible mood for Borduninstrumente such as hurdy-gurdy and bagpipe, as these are often played in unison with the drones only in keys based on less quint related fundamental tones. It is particularly suitable mood for the performance of original compositions for the hurdy-gurdy and bagpipe ( in the sources Vielle [a roue ] and Musette [ de court ] ) from the 18th century.

477727
de