Technical Library TEMPERAMENTS VIII: Transposing Quarter-comma Meantone Entire Contents Copyright ©2008 CBH

If you want to play in keys further afield, you can still do so in Quarter-comma Meantone, but you must be prepared to retune a little, transposing the temperament somewhat.

For example, to change all your G^#s to A^bs, determine the a^b a perfect third down from middle c', instead of the g^# that resulted when you tuned up a perfect third from the e. You’ll no longer be able to play in the key of a minor because you’ve lost your G^# leading note.

The diagram shows what we have accomplished: See the difference by putting your mouse over the diagram at the right and then removing it. Compared to our first incantation, the dial has really just spun one notch anticlockwise, locating our wolf between A^b and C^#. We’ve lost our perfect third on top of E, but gained it on top of A^b instead.

You can go one step further if you need to play Pachelbel’s Ciacona in f minor: Change all your C^#s to D^bs, by determining the d^b' a perfect third down from f', instead of the c^#' that results when you tune up a perfect third from the a.

There are other possibilities, and perhaps I can excite you to play around some more while we divert our attention to some meantone variants. Then it will be time to look at some more well temperaments.

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