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Article: How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony: And Why You Should Care.(Book review)
- Article from:
- American Music Teacher
- Article date:
- February 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Music Teachers National Association, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony: And Why You Should Care, by Ross. W. Duffin. W. W. Norton and Company, Inc. (500 5th Ave., New York, NY 10110), 2006. 184 pp. $25.95.
I'm skeptical of people who tell me what I should do, so I was put off by the title of Ross Duffin's book. He preaches that there's nothing natural about equal temperament, or "ET" as he refers to it. This is nothing new, of course. I was taught early on that ET was a system in which all 12 notes were equally out of tune.
Duffin's light, witty writing style belies his impressive academic background in early tuning systems. A clever lesson on tuning systems and their history forms the ...