Stub - 5. Music, Temperament, and Social Concord

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According to McClain (1976: p. 112), in the 16th century AD “the new ‘chordal’ harmonies… made the ‘human number 5’ (in the triad ratios of 4:5:6) a factor to be reckoned with.” The result was called “Just tuning.” “[I]ts plague of commas” made music a cacophony, until Bach helped right matters with his Well-Tempered Clavier in 1722. (It would take another century for truly even temperament to establish itself throughout Europe and its overseas culture area.)

Note: The Chinese had used the number five to come up with pentatonic music. Thus, there were many ways of applying any given cosmology to history, calendar-making, etc.

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Below is one note from the author that didn’t fit elsewhere, so we omitted it; can help you help us expand this:

[Omitted text:] 2. The scale really got out of tune. The doctrine of Just Temperament as taught by the Church Fathers through the Middle Ages reduced music to the homophony of the Gregorian chant. It would be more than a millennium before polyphony developed. (Capsule history of tuning through Bach and the moderns.)

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