Temperament

[Bill Hibbert <bill@h...>]

Jim Phillips:

> Have these other temperaments ever been used
> in bell tuning and how do they differ from Equal
> temperament?

Prior to the use of forks and modern tuning machines, it is quite 
difficult to determine exactly what temperament the founder intended, 
due to tuning inaccuracies and the prevalence of stretch. The Hemonys 
used a Meantone in their carillons, in line with keyboard instruments 
of their time. I have a suspicion (to be confirmed by analysis of 
lots more bells) that Rudhalls tended towards a sort of Equal to make 
it easy to supply bells from stock.

The most prevalent tuning used by Taylors and Whitechapel in the 
first half of the 20th century was Just. Taylors moved to Equal in 
the 20s / 30s (as they built their carillon business). Whitechapel 
stayed with Just until the early sixties, until they too changed to 
Equal. Recently, Whitechapel have moved away from Equal to various 
meantone or Well temperaments, such as Kirnberger III.

My website has some information on temperaments, and links to more 
voluminous resources. Nigel Taylor's website 
http://www.kirnberger.fsnet.co.uk/ gives a comprehensive review of 
the subject. Put very simply, in a peal of eight tuned in Equal the 
second, third and sixth are tuned sharpest of all, in Just they are 
tuned flattest of all, and the other temperaments lie somewhere in 
between. This explanation ignores a lot of detail and may offend the 
purists!

Last summer I ran an experiment (surely you must have read my 
postings!) to find out if people can tell the difference between the 
various tunings. The experts can, of course. Many people, perhaps the 
majority, cannot hear any difference. Those who can, often prefer 
Equal temperament. This is almost certainly because it is what we are 
used to, i.e. a cultural issue, rather than due to any deep theory 
about the tunings.

Bill H