Not quite just

Abstract

Temperament, tuning and intonation are recurrent topics in music theory and performance practice. Yet deeper understanding about them is to be found only in a limited circle of musicians, instrument makers and musicologists—mainly those who tune or research instruments with fixed pitches (keyboard instruments, harps or lutes). The theory and history of temperament and intonation are well covered in thousands of publications. Most musicians, however, tend to avoid this reading, since presentations of the matter are often quite dry and mathematical. Hands-on advice is rare and does not regularly appear in music education. But the practice and theory of intonation should be a central subject in the curriculum of all music courses, for this would eventually improve performances greatly. Any book whose author achieves wider awareness of the topic, as Ross Duffin aims to do, is very welcome, and Duffin largely succeeds in his goal. The title, however, is somewhat misleading, as it implies that the book deals only with temperament, when in fact it also covers the historical development of intonation of freely intonating musicians. Actually, this is the main point of his book, as stated on p.151. It would have helped if this had been reflected in the title, even if the wording were somewhat less catchy.