Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/91

TEMPERAMENT. farther back, and one-twelfth of an inch higher than the C. The D key recedes and rises to the same extent relatively to the G, and so with the rest. After twelve Fifths we come to the B♯ key, and find it three inches behind and one inch above the from which we started. This oblique arrangement enables us to greatly increase the number of notes per Octave without any inconvenience to the player. At the same time the fingering is greatly simplified, for any given chord or scale always has the same form under the hand, at whatever actual pitch it may be played. Nor is it necessary to decide beforehand on the exact key-relationship of the passage, as it will be played in the same manner, whatever view may be taken of its analysis. The advantage of having thus to learn only one style of fingering for the Major scale, instead of twelve different styles, as on the ordinary keyboard, is self-evident. Chromatic notes are played according to the following rule:—put the finger up for a sharp and down for a flat. This results from the principle on which the keyboard is arranged, the higher keys corresponding to notes which are reached by an upward series of Fifths, and the lower keys to notes reached by a downward series. The following diagram shows the positions of the notes on the keyboard when applied to the meantone system:—

As all proposed improvements, either in music or anything else, are sure to meet with opposition, we will here consider some of the objections which may be made to the use of an instrument such as we have just described. It is natural that the new form of keyboard should be received with some hesitation, and that its style of fingering should be thought difficult; but in fact the old keyboard is far from being a model of simplicity, and many attempts have been made to reform it, independently of any aim at improving the tuning. [See, vol. ii. pp. 54, 55.] On the new keyboard the fingering is of the simplest possible character, and permits the attainment of any required rate of speed. All desirable combinations lie within easy grasp related notes being nearly on the same level. To prove that ordinary music can be easily adapted to the meantone organ, Mr. Bosanquet performed on it three of Bach's preludes at the meeting of the Musical Association already referred to. There would be no difficulty in constructing this form of keyboard with several manuals, nor in applying the same symmetrical arrangement to a pedal.

The advantage gained by employing an improved system of tuning depends so much on the quality of tone of the instrument, that it is very doubtful whether it would be worth while to adopt the meantone system for the pianoforte. It is only on the modern 'concert-grand' that the defects of equal temperament are felt to any great extent, and it might therefore be well to construct these instruments with a complete meantone scale. Still, the result would hardly be so satisfactory as on the organ, whether used in solo performance or in leading the voices of a choir.

The last objection which has to be considered is that enharmonic changes are supposed by some to be impossible in any system of tuning which provides distinct sounds for G♭ and F♯. This view is incorrect, as we shall recognise if we enquire what enharmonic changes really are. For the most part they are merely nominal, being used to avoid the strange appearance of remote keys. Thus in the 'Pro Peccatis' of Rossini's 'Stabat Mater,' there is apparently an enharmonic modulation from the key of A♮ to that of D♭.

But in reality it is a chromatic modulation from A♮ to C♯, with no enharmonic element whatsoever. The passage would be played on a meantone instrument as follows:—