Quarter-comma meantone tuning was probably the standard tuning for keyboard instruments for 4 centuries, much longer than the equal temperament we think of as normal has lasted. It gives a large number of pure or close-to-pure intervals: Most of the fifths and fourths in the keys one actually uses are acceptable, and 8 0f the thirds are pure -- leading to ethereal chords impossible in a modern tuning. For an example, click on the image to the right (which should enlarge it enough to play), 'Dic Nobis Maria' by Antonio de Cabezon, from the Luis Venegas de Henestrosa 'Libro de Cifra Nuevo' c. 1550. And play through it, imagining the just intonation on the thirds that you get from a good boys' choir.

	To tune meantone, you need to first know how to tune unisons and octaves pure. If you have not yet figured this out, make a half-hour appointment with someone who has. Your local harpsichordist will do, or your local piano or organ tuner. ----- You start with a pure beatless third: tune middle c, called c', and then tune the e above it, e', making a pure third to it. In equal temperament one is used to 6 or 7 beats in that third, making it 'rich'-sounding to the modern ear. But here we are looking for purity, so we make it smaller than an equal-tempered third until the interval (the two notes played together) is beatless. ------ Tune 2 pure octaves, one from middle C up and one down, and the octave from e' down (and check to make sure c-e in the lower octave is also beatless). ------ Tune the fourths and fifths c'-g, g-d', d'-a, and a-e' (already tuned, and leave it!) so that they average out (this, in a sense, is the 'mean') as close to pure as thay can be and still arrive at the pure third e'. This means about 2 beats per second in each fifth or fourth. n. b. there are other 'meantone' tunings, 1/3 comma, 1/6 comma, even 1/12 comma which is what we know as equal temperament; but they produce few pure intervals; getting everything equally out-of-tune is what you have to do for them, whereas in classic quarter-comma meantone the drill is to get some things exactly in-tune. This is not a hard thing to tune, this is an EASY thing to tune. Equal temperament is hard. ----- tune pure octaves to each of these notes, g up to g', d' down to d, a up to a'. ------- From now on you merely tune pure thirds: g-b (then tune a pure octave up to b', check with g', already tuned) a-f (tune a pure octave up to f', check with a') d'-f#' (tune a pure octave down to f#, check with d) a-c#' (tune a pure octave down to c#) d'-b flat (tune a pure octave up to b'flat') g to e flat (tune a pure octave up to e-flat', check with g') e to g# (tune a pure octave up to g#', check with e') [sometimes one tunes c down to a flat instead of e up to g#, if one has the choice and it fits the music one is working on better; or one can put in a d# rather than an e flat. One can customize this tuning any number of ways, actually, for instance by picking a different starting point] ----- Now you check to make sure major chords in your middle two octaves on F, G, A, B flat, C, D, E flat and E all sound good, and that major chords on F sharp, D flat and A flat sound awful. Tune pure octaves down to the bottom and up to the top of the instrument. And you are done.
	When tuning clavichords, I myself have trouble hearing pure thirds. So I often tune by fifths and fourths and use the thirds for a check. You get a feel for just how out-of-tune the fourths and fifths have to be: "as much as the ear can bear", say the treatises. You need to train your ear to find just that much and no more bearable. The other thing that is different about tuning clavichords, at least the fretted clavichords that were by far the most common during the meantone era, is that much of your temperament is set for you already, by the placement of the tangents. With a pairwise-fretted clavichord you tune only the white keys, on a triple-fretted you tune even fewer notes -- four properly chosen pure thirds (for example g'-b', f' -a', d'-f#' and c'-e') give you a temperament (but check ALL the thirds in that octave to make sure ALL the ones that are supposed to be pure are indeed pure). If one wanted equal temperament one would set the tangents for the accidentals at a distance of approximately 18/17. In quarter-comma meantone, The distance would be instead approximately 23/22 from the accidental to the note or vice versa (i. e. from e flat to e or from f to f sharp -- with the distance on the other side being larger). If your builder did not set the tangents for meantone, sometimes they can be bent enough to give it to you anyhow, or they can be moved. But it's tricky work that can cause loose tangents and bad sound if done sloppily -- contact your builder. In the 16th and 17th centuries, I will mention, it was a relatively common thing to have split accidentals with both choices offered, at least for d sharp / e flat and g sharp / a flat -- which gives you 14 notes per octave instead of the twelve one thinks is standard. But we seldom have that luxury now, we have to make choices. Of course, if you are playing music from after the mean-tone era, and you are not limited by a fretted clavichord already set up for quarter-comma meantone, you my want to try a 'well-temperament', one where you can play in all 24 major and minor keys (and Bach used them all in the Well-Tempered-Clavichord, he certainly didn't mean it to be played in meantone), though with individual color to them. It isn't necessary to use an exact recipe. Letters and fictional works of the period where people talk about their keyboard instruments don't say 'I tuned my Clavier in Werckmeister III today', they just say 'I tuned the clavier'. Organ tuners talked about the details (which is where many of the recipes come from), but when people talked about their little living room clavichord they just said 'I tuned the clavichord'. They didn't feel the need to hit some perfectly accurate exact template. They tuned for themselves, the tuning hammer was in a little drawer in the instrument, if something bothered them while they were playing they fixed it. My recipe for tuning a well-temperament: I tune the first 4 intervals to make the third c-e, to make it have just a few slow beats in it (usually, but if I am working on a mix of music that includes lots of earlier stuff I make it pure). I adjust the fifths and fourth for g, d, and a to be fairly even, just as you do in meantone. Then I tune fifths and fourths from e to b, f# and c# and from c to f and b flat to be just slightly tempered, or maybe even pure. Then I connect the c# to the b-flat by means of some sort of e-flat /d# and a-flat / g# that aren't too wolfy and make the keys I happen to be playing in at the moment work. As I practice I maybe find I want the e-flats a little lower so I move them. By the time I give the concert I have developed it into a temperament that makes all of the funny mix of music from 2 or 3 centuries sound acceptable. And it doesn't have a name on it unless I want to give it one. It's really not that hard, the important thing is to learn to listen.
	Mean Cents: in equal temperament one figures semitones are 100 cents apart -- electronic tuners zero out on those frequencies, which gives users of electronic tuners the idea that there is something pure or perfect about them. In meantone at a standard pitch, the electronic tuner readings are c +10.3 c# -13.7 [d flat +27.4] d 3.5 [d# -20.5] e flat +20.5 e -3.4 f +13.7 f# -10.3 [g flat +30.8] g +6.8 g# -17.1 [a flat 23.9] a 0 [a# -24.0] b flat +17.1 b -6.8 [notes in brackets are not normally used on a 12-note-per-octave keyboard]

The Clavichord Page of the San Diego Harpsichord Society	Clavichord Maker Owen Daly	promoting global harmony through LucyTuning

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judithconrad@mindspring.com