Temperanotes is command line Musical Temperament Editor useful to transform temperament descriptions such as the ones found on wikipedia (e.g. Werckmeister temperament II) into practically usable formats, such as the input format for timidity described here, or a midi MTS bulk tuning file, and likely even something like Pianoteq format (if the specs can be found)
The input temperament needs exactly 12 entries (lines). Comments are allowed on any line (entry or non-entry line) and must start with #.
Each entry line must be of the form:
frequency_ratio [, cent]
where both frequency_ratio and cent can be a python expression such as sqrt(2) or 103 or 2 ** (1/32). Note that sqrt and
log are automatically imported from math, and that floating point division is automatically performed even from integer input.
The cent value is optional and will be rounded to the closest integer.
If present on one entry, the cent value must be present for all 12 entries. The cent values are used only for validation, in that
if frequency_ratio and cent do not agree, a warning is printed.
Run something like
python temperanotes.py input/Werckmeister_I_III.txt -t > Werckmeister_I_III.timidity
to generate the timidity frequency file, which can be then used as argument file for the --freq-table option when invoking timidity.
Create the meantone quarter comma and equal temperaments in timidity format with:
python temperanotes.py input/meantone_quartercomma.txt -t > output/meantone_quartercomma.timidity
python temperanotes.py -te > output/equal.timidity
Then download an example song, e.g. Bach's 2-part invention in F minor which is a good one to hear the difference between equal and meantone (when the latter is created for the C key, which was usually the case in Bach's time), and play it with timidity as follows:
timidity -A 100 -T 60 bach-invention-09.mid
timidity -Z meantone_quartercomma.timidity -A 100 -T 60 bach-invention-09.mid
You may select a different volume (-A 100) or a different tempo (-T 60). The vast majority of scholars and performers use
something around 60 as I'm doing here, but Glenn Gould played it as slow as 40 while Czerny recommends 116, so
make your own choice. You may also save to file (instead of playing) with either -Ov -o output_file.ogg or
-Ow -o output_file.wav
At the moment I'm focusing on Meantone and Well Temperaments from the late 1600s to the early 1700s and on timidity only, but I may expand to other eras and software later (and pull request will always be welcome)
Temperanotes name is a portmanteau of temperament and note.
The logo is an Italian tongue in cheek since in Italian temperare (the act of creating a temperament) means more commonly sharpening a pencil.