A CONSONANCE-BASED APPROACH TO THE HARPSICHORD TUNING OF SCARLATTI,DOMENICO

This paper discusses a quantitative method for the study of historical keyboard instrument tunings that is based on a measure of the perceiv ed dissonance of the intervals in a tuning and their frequency of occu rrence in the compositions of Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757). We concl ude that the total dissonance of a large volume of music is a useful t ool for studies of keyboard instrument tuning in a historical musical context, although it is insufficient by itself. Its use provides signi ficant evidence that Scarlatti used French tunings of his period durin g the composition of his sonatas. Use of total dissonance to optimize a 12-tone tuning for a historical body of music can produce musically valuable results, but must at present be tempered with musical judgmen t, in particular to prevent overspecialization of the intervals. (C) 1 997 Acoustical Society of America.