Temperaments 2 by Jon Rose and Veryan Weston

Recorded 18th March 2009 by Martin Davidson direct to stereo at Finchcocks Piano Museum, Goudhurst, Kent, UK.

Keyboards: Spinet attributed to Cawton Aston 1700 (trk1); Viennese fortepiano 1832 by Jakesch Mathias armed with 6 extra foot pedals that access the ‘Turkish percussion’ of bells, cymbal, and drum (trks 2, 4); replica of 2 manual harpsichord by Claude Labreche 1695 (trks 3, 5); barrel organ by William Anton circa 1770 (trks 6, 16); portable square piano by Walter & Sohn (trk 7, 11); chamber organ by John Avery 1772 ( trk 8); clavichord by Georg Schmahl 1807 (try 9); virginal made by Musela (try 10); other tracks feature a French and a Portuguese Harpsichord but we can’t locate the correct information and attribution for these instruments.

Although the tenor violin is part of the confusing nomenclature of bowed history - see http://www.jonroseweb.com/archive/c_articles_tenor_violin.html,
in the last decade of the 20th century, commercially produced strings started to appear for electric violins sounding an octave lower than the regular instrument. Problematic as these strings are, they do produce an acoustic result that lies outside the known historical aesthetic. Harry Vatiliotis, the legendary Australian luthier, has applied his skill in conjuring up an instrument in which the back and belly plates vibrate freely at string excitation frequencies on the edge of the technically possible and acoustically viable. What the instrument lacks in upper particles, it makes up for with a monstrous barking sound.

Tracklist

1.	Are You Well Tempered?	3:52

2.	Turkish Delight	12:31

3.	Springs and Spins	4:46

4.	Old Turks	5:40

5.	The Grinder	2:32

6.	The Whistling Wheel	2:47

7.	Budget Travel	1:48

8.	The Peddling Lungs	5:42

9.	Toe Nails	3:01

10.	The Servant’s Dilemma	4:41

11.	Finger Dance	2:33

12.	Revolving Ears	4:18

13.	Carpet Capers	3:09

14.	Baroque and Broke	2:46

15.	Tuning Levers	3:04

16.	Museum Tour Backwards (from video)	4:04

Credits

released December 12, 2024

Unlike the double CD set Temperaments (Emanen 4207) which used a multitude of temperaments (Pythagoran, Just intonation, Meantone 1/4 comma, Equal, and Rosenberg Augmented) and instruments recorded in various locations around Europe, Temperaments 2 concentrates on one recording session at Finchcocks Piano Museum in England. The temperaments utilised are of two kinds only - Equal at A=440 and Meantone at A=430 - the avid listener will spot the difference. The violins are tuned with standard fifths, G,D,A,C#, or G,G#,A,C# at A=440.

License