Written for musicians by a musician, Meantone Temperaments on Lutes and Viols demystifies tuning systems by providing the basic information, historical context, and practical advice necessary to easily achieve more satisfying tuning results on fretted instruments. Despite the overwhelming organological evidence that many of the finest lutenists, vihuelists, and viola da gamba players in the Renaissance and Baroque eras tuned their instruments in one of the meantone temperaments, most modern early instrument players today still tune to equal temperament. In this handbook richly supplemented with figures, diagrams, and music examples, historical performers will discover why temperaments are necessary and how they work, descriptions of a variety of temperaments, and their application on fretted instruments. This technical book provides downloadable audio tracks and other tools for fretted instrument players to achieve more stable consonances, colorful dissonances, and harmonic progressions that vividly propel the music forward.
“This book will go a long way towards destroying the myths of many well-intentioned, but ill-informed scholars and performers.” —Paul O’Dette, world-renowned lutenist and Director of Early Music at Eastman School of Music
“This book is welcome, aiming as it does to combine the historical, theoretical, and practical aspects of this sometimes vexed and controversial topic in a lively and approachable manner.” —Richard Carter, Oriana Music: Early Music Editions, co-owner
“This book is well written in a friendly style, and it fulfills its tutorial intention very well.”— The Consort
“There is a wealth of knowledge here for more advanced performers and those with an interest in historical temperaments.” — Music Reference Services Quarterly
“This is an excellent, well-written book. There is a wealth of information about how players of fretted instruments found different solutions to the problems of tuning; the section on the theory of temperaments is a good read in spite of the dryness of its subject matter; and there is much good practical advice to help us improve our playing by getting our instruments well in tune.” — The Viola da Gamba Society Journal
“[This book] handles a difficult subject with clarity and vigor, and I imagine it will find a welcome place on the bookshelf of the serious student interested in exploring the unique soundscape attainable only through meantone temperament. ” — Notes
Click Meantone Temperaments on Lutes and Viols to go to the book’s website at at Indiana University Press where you can find a description, reviews, table of contents, and audio files.