"Of the Temperament of Those Musical Instruments, in Which the Tones, Keys, or Frets, are Fixed, as in the Harpsichord, Organ, Guitar, &c"

This page contains excerpts of the article by Tiberius Cavallo (1749-1809) in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, volume 78 (1788) p.238-54. Cavallo was an Italian 'natural philosopher', meaning scientist, who made his home in London after 1771. His chief interest here was in the use of equal temperament, evidently a novelty, and the article is mainly useful for whatever light it sheds on the unequal tuning in use in 18th century England. Later, Cavallo was consulted by Broadwood about the design of pianos, though it is not clear how useful his 'scientific' advice was in the end.

In the article, Cavallo discusses temperament in general, and naturally begins with the pure intervals of the scale and the deduction that a keyboard instrument cannot contain every pure interval.

"Other instruments, in which the notes are not fixed, as the violin, violoncello, &c. are perfect, because the performer stops the string upon them in different places, even for sounding the notes of the same name. Thus a skilful peformer, in order to sound A, will stop the string a little farther from the bridge when he plays in the key of C, viz. when C is considered as the key-note, than (...) in the key of D."