“Why was the term “well tempered clavier” chosen.”
They weren’t yet using the “equal temperament” system we use now, but they had developed some precursors of that system to allow keyboardists to play in any key without having to retune the instrument for every song. The work contains songs in every one of the 24 keys, so that type of tuning system was a necessity in order to be able to play this kind of collection.
“They weren’t yet using the “equal temperament” system ...”
Very interesting. Thanks!
Have you realized how “lucky” the 12-tone octave is where each successive halftone is the 12th root of two from its neighbor.
That irrational ratio produces intervals very, very close to the ‘perfect’ intervals.