Talk:Well temperament

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[edit] Etymology note in lead.

The German usage is gute Temperatur "good temperament", but "well temperament" has become ingrained, despite its perceived ungrammaticality and hence avoidance by some authors.

I'm assuming Das Wohltemperierte Klavier is the reason we've picked it up as "well temperament", but I might point out that the German gut often does translate better as well than good, so I don't see it as a bad translation of the German; Funny how we say "well fed", not "good fed"; "well tempered", not "good tempered". But, ah, I suppose "a good temperament". What a bizarre langauge.

Anyhow, my complaint is that German usage of gute Temperatur doest not really imply "good", as the lead claims, but it is more rightly English grammar that implies it. Furthermore, a look at the German version of this page suggests that "Wohltemperierte" is actually the more common German usage anyway. - Rainwarrior 05:03, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ordinaire NPOV?

The article seems to fail NPOV in the way it blows off temperament ordinaire, which did have wide use in certain places and times. If there is no objection, I'll change it some time. Gene Ward Smith 19:53, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

I've changed it. The sentence that I removed wasn't even completely formed. The statement that follows about many-sharped/flatted keys being used only "fleetingly" sounds innacurate as well, but I've left it for the moment.

An unrelated question though; I removed a redlink to "irregular temperament" (replacing it with regular temperament). I don't know who put it there, but since you know a lot about Regular Temperament, I'm just wondering, is there such a thing? I do suppose that such a thing is possible to theorize; maybe a limitless just intonation would be irregular? But, I would be astounded if there was any practical consequence to the idea of an irregular temperament. (Maybe I just haven't thought it through though...) Any thoughts? - Rainwarrior 22:05, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Circulating temperaments are often called "irregular"; that's what Barbour called them, IIRC. Gene Ward Smith 03:16, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

Oh okay, so in a circulating temperament, basically every interval is different, making it "irregular"? I was thinking too strictly that any temperament with a finite number of notes could be a high-ranking regular temperament. So, do you think "irregular temperament" deserves its own page, or just the mention in this article about well temperament? - Rainwarrior 03:35, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

Well temperament should suffice, so long as it is clear that "ordinaire" is included. Gene Ward Smith 05:36, 23 June 2006 (UTC)