Since the early nineteenth century, Western music has been tuned according to the equal-temperament system, which adjusts the neat Greek ratios in order to create a standardized scale.
American composer James Tenney was fixated on tuning systems that he felt were infinitely more complex and multi-layered than the standard equal temperament, the system through which Western orchestras and instruments are tuned.
The wide-ranging modulations and affective harmonic progressions of German Baroque composers depended on equal temperament, a system that permits exploration of keys distant from the tonic without the necessity of retuning to accommodate the remote harmonies.
Under this system, temperament trumps kinship — in a neat twist, the family unit is now considered responsible for "society's disintegration" — and separation is enforced by border guards and government informers.
In concert with infant neurobehavioral and physiological assessments from birth through 24 months corrected age (CA), maternal assessments are made using standard tools including anxiety, depression, attachment, support systems, temperament as well as physiological stress parameters.
But around 1700 it gave way to "equal temperament," a mathematically "impure" system that allows modern pianos to be played in all of the keys.
Isacoff allots a scant paragraph to a minor figure named Lord Brouncker, who developed a logarithmic system of temperament based on ancient Greek geometry, yet then devotes pages to quotations about sexual misconduct and freethinking in the 18th century, which are not as worldly and amusing as he supposes.
His system of temperament still is subject of much discussion.
A measure of temperament from the AMS system could be teat cup attachment failures.
Earlier European tuning systems—such as meantone temperament and just intonation were "cyclic" systems, in which given intervals were calculated by adding together other "pure" intervals.
