Extra Credit Opportunity: Watch Howard Goodall's Documentary, "Equal Temperament"

Equal Temperament
__________________________

Equal temperament basically refers to a system for prescribing what pitch each note of our 12-note western tuning system should be. As you learned earlier, pitch refers to the hertz or frequency that a note vibrates at. The note A, for instance, by today's standards, should vibrate at 440 hz per second. Hundreds of years ago, the accepted pitch for A was 444.

This illustrates that throughout history and from one culture to another tuning systems vary. Some tuning systems only use five notes (pentatonic) and are based on Pythagoras' notion of using a tuning system that is very close to natural law. However, this tuning system does not allow for different instruments to play in different keys or different octaves. So, compromises had to be made in our tuning system to allow composers like Bach, Mozart and Beethoven to compose in different keys for different instrument and to realize their full potential.

How did we arrive at the tuning system we use today? This question and many others are dealt with in the Howard Goodall's excellent documentary. The documentary is a bit technical and the ideas behind the notion of equal temperament are complex, but fascinating!

Link Links to an external site.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41g2fSYZ4Sc