TEMPERAMENT

(Lat. temper are, to moderate.) In Music, the adjustment of the imperfect concords, in musical instruments, whose sounds are fixed, such as organs, pianofortes, , so as to transfer to them part of the beauty of the perfect concords. The defect to be remedied arises from the single short keys between the two larger ones serving for flats as well as sharps. It is nece ary to observe, that in the theory of harmonies the interval of a tone is not always the same; for instance, that lying between the fourth and fifth of the scale contains nine small parts, called commas, whereas that between the fifth and sixth of the major scale contains only eight commas. Again, the diatonic semitone contains ive commas, and the chromatic 1230 [s. 1244]