Well Temperaments (Part 6)

Andreas Werckmeister (1645–1706) was a musician and expert on the organ. Compared to Kirnberger, his life seems outwardly dull. He got his musical training from his uncles, and from the age of 19 to his death he worked as an organist in three German towns. That’s about all I know.

His fame comes from the tremendous impact of his his theoretical writings. Most importantly, in his 1687 book Musikalische Temperatur he described the first ‘well tempered’ tuning systems for keyboards, where ever...