temperament

temperament in music, the altering of certain intervals from their acoustically correct values to provide a system of tuning whereby music can move from key to key without unacceptably impure sonorities. It is particularly necessary for keyboard instruments, the pitches of which cannot be varied in performance. Many systems have been devised, going back to the late 15th cent. "Just Intonation" refers to systems in which some fifths are tuned unacceptably small so that others may be pure. "Temperament" refers to systems that distribute the impurities throughout the tuning. Of these, "Equal Temperament" divides the octave into 12 equal half-steps, leaving all intervals except the octave slightly impure. (see tuning systems ).

Bibliography: See S. Isacoff, Temperament: The Idea That Solved Music's Greatest Riddle (2001).

temperament. Adjustment in tuning (i.e. ‘tempering’) of mus. intervals away from ‘natural’ scale so that such pairs of notes as B♯ and C, or C♯ and D♭, are combined instead of being treated individually. This leaves neither note accurate but sufficiently so for the ear to accept it. In kbd. instr. this avoids unmanageable number of finger-keys. The pf., organ, and other fixed-pitch modern instr., are tuned to equal temperament, in which each semitone is made an equal interval, making it easy to play in any key and to modulate. Before equal temperament (which was introduced for pfs. in Eng. in 1846 and for organs a little later), the commonest system was mean-tone temperament, which left certain keys tolerable, others less so, and some unusable. The untempered scale is known as just intonation. Instr. such as the vn. family can have no system of temperament, the player determining the pitch and checking it by ear. Some 20th-cent. composers have restored 12-note scale to just intonation. Others have used microtonal scales in just relationship. Still more have used ‘prepared’ instr. producing unexpected pitches, or elec. systems, or computers.