Abstract

Bradley Lehman's initial approach to determining Bach's temperament is certainly inspired, but he seems to be unaware that the ‘C’ indicating the starting-point of the temperament is actually an ornamental hook on the ‘C’ of ‘Clavier’. The same hook is seen on the title-page of WTC II (not in Bach's hand), where there are no loops. It is also found on the initial ‘S’ of ‘Semitonien’ and ‘Sebastian’. Bach may have intended the hook to do double duty, but I think that the fact that it has a bona fide calligraphic use seriously weakens Lehman's hypothesis. In addition, the ornate spiral and loop pattern near the bottom of the page in WTC I suggests that the loops above the title may be purely ornamental after all. Another problem is that Lehman is clearly unaware that the precise relation between beat rates and tempering was not understood in 1722. Although theorists discussed many different divisions of the comma, my feeling is that it would have been impossible in practice to distinguish one from another. Bedos de Celles's method of 1766 gives beat rates, but, as I have intimated elsewhere (Revista de musicología, xxii/2 (1999)), they appear to have been determined empirically. Without a knowledge of beat rates, neither the accuracy nor reproducibility required by Lehman's temperament would have been attainable.

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