Were we to adhere to Dr. Smith's measure of equal harmony, the rows
of products belonging to the Vths, IIIds, and 3ds, must be divided,
respectively, by ⅓, 1/10, and 1/13 (the reciprocals of half the
products of the terms of their perfect ratios,) before they could
be properly added to express the whole amount of dissonance heard
in all the concords; but, according to Prop. I. the simple products
ought to be added, and the sums at the bottom of the table will
express the true ratio of the aggregate dissonance of the systems
under which they stand. The last has decidedly the advantage
over the first, both in regard to the aggregate dissonance, and
the equality of its distribution among the different classes of
concords. It has nearly an equal advantage over the second in
regard to the first of these considerations; although in regard
to the equality of distribution, the latter has slightly the
advantage. It has, in a small degree, the advantage over the third,
in regard to the aggregate dissonance; while, as it respects the
equality of its distribution, it has the decided preference. It is
true that the temperaments of the concords of the same name, in the
new scale, are not as in the others, absolutely equal; but no one
of them is so large as to give any offence to the nicest ear. The
largest in the whole scale exceeds the uniform temperament of Dr.
Smith's Vths by only 1/18 of a comma.
_Scholium_ 1.
The above system may be put in practice on the organ, by making the
successive Vths CG, GD, DE, &c. beat flat at the rate contained in
Table VII., descending an octave, where necessary, and doubling
the number of beats belonging to any degree in the table, when
the Vth to be tuned has its base in the octave above the treble
C. The tenor C must first be made to vibrate 240 in a second, the
methods of doing which are detailed at length in various authors.
Whenever a IIId results from the Vths tuned, its beats ought to be
compared with those required in the table, and the correctness of
the Vths thus proved. This system is as easy, in practice, as any
other; for no one can be tuned correctly except by counting the
beats, and rendering them conformable to what that system requires.
The intervals of the first octave tuned ought to be adjusted with
the utmost accuracy, by a table of beats. When this is done, the
labour of making perfect the other octaves of the same stop, and
the unisons, octaves, Vths, &c. of the other stops, is the same
in every system. This last, indeed, is so much the most laborious
part of the tuning of the organ, that if even much more labour
were required than actually is, in adjusting the intervals of the
octave first tuned it would occasion little difference in the whole.
_Scholium_ 2.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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