Some biographies say that Soler constructed some kind of “microtonal” tuning machine.
Does anyone know what this was, and what sort of tuning Soler would have constructed?
What biographies? And more than one? As they say on WIkipedia, “reference required”.
A machine to do the tuning - on a harpsichord or an organ? Sounds unlikely. If this existed, could it just be a calibrated monochord? The 17C equivalent of the phone tuner app.
I confess I am sceptical anyway.
Is it this?
A long day indeed it was for the Hieronymite monks, beginning with office hours at 5AM and progressing through a series of masses, lessons, recitations of the Stations of the Cross, and finishing at midnight with maitines. In light of this heavy schedule, it is remarkable that he managed to compose so many musical works. As if all of these duties and musical endeavors were not enough to occupy his waking hours, he also found time to invent a tuning box that he called an afinador or templante, which used plucked strings to divide the 9:8 tuning ratio into 20 equal parts. So one might, with some degree of legitimacy, state that this innovative monastic was one of the earliest microtonalists.
That I can believe. But this sounds like a tuning reference, not a machine that acts on tuning pins (which is what I assume is meant by machine in this context).
Google translate says “afinador templante” means “tempering tuner”.
We don’t know a lot about Soler. I’d still like to see proof of this tuning reference by him.
I didn’t think it was literally a machine to turn the tuning pegs, but probably a multi-string monochord that could demonstrate slightly different sizes of whole tones.
Carroll’s dissertation on Soler includes a translation of Chapter Ten of Llave de la Modulacion. In the vicinity of p. 235 Soler discusses the many possible sizes of chromatic alterations, including the 9/8 whole tone. Perhaps the tuning device was a demonstration of these intervals. https://urresearch.rochester.edu/institutionalPublicationPublicView.action?institutionalItemId=32263
I don’t know if there was any practical realization of these intervals, nor do I understand Soler’s concerns. I don’t know if this was a topic of common concern among music theorists of that time, or just Soler’s concern. I also don’t know if this has any bearing on Soler’s harpsichord tuning.
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Thanks Ed that is very interesting to me.
I was possibly reading too much into the word ‘machine’. But I also think it was a calibrated monochord of some sort.