Topmusicanswers
Equal temperament tuning was widely adopted in France and Germany by the late 18th century and in England by the 19th.
- When was 12 tone equal temperament invented?
- Did Beethoven use equal temperament?
- How out of tune is equal temperament?
- Who invented 12 tone equal temperament?
When was 12 tone equal temperament invented?
While China had previously come up with approximations for 12-TET, Zhu Zaiyu was the first person to mathematically solve twelve-tone equal temperament, which he described in his Fusion of Music and Calendar 律暦融通 in 1580 and Complete Compendium of Music and Pitch (Yuelü quan shu 樂律全書) in 1584.
Did Beethoven use equal temperament?
UNEQUAL TEMPERAMENT
Neither did Mozart nor Beethoven or any of their contemporaries. They used unequal temperaments — also known as, you guessed it, Well-tempered. In the Well-Tempered Clavier, Bach celebrated unequal tempered tuning, not today's equal tempered tuning.
How out of tune is equal temperament?
One of those tunings was already known to the ancients: equal temperament. Here the poison is distributed equally through the system: The distance between each interval is mathematically the same, so each interval is equally in, and slightly out of, tune. Nothing is perfect; nothing is terrible.
Who invented 12 tone equal temperament?
Early history
Vincenzo Galilei (father of Galileo Galilei) was one of the first practical advocates of twelve-tone equal temperament. He composed a set of dance suites on each of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale in all the "transposition keys", and published also, in his 1584 "Fronimo", 24 + 1 ricercars.
