UNEQUAL TEMPERAMENTS - A review of sorts
A review of the UNEQUAL TEMPERAMENTS eBook (UT) by Dr. Bradley Lehman was published on The Viola da Gamba Society Journal (2009), Vol 03 No 2, in Dec. 2009. A detailed response, "Unequal Temperaments: Revisited", was published in the same Journal, Vol 04, issued in January 2011. These complete issues can be downloaded from the VdGS Journal website. A much smaller file is now available, with only the Unequal Temperaments: Revisited article, which explains the fundamental flaws that invalidate the whole review.
Lehman entitled his main paper (2005) "Bach's Extraordinary Temperament: Our Rosetta Stone", and he has repeatedly written expressions such as "my Rosetta-Stone discovery" and "compelling evidence", naming his proposal "Bach's temperament", as if it was a given that his temperament is the only one worthy of Bach's name among the scores of similar modern proposals. He fully rejected a thorough rebuttal of his methods and conclusions, published by highly respected scholars Drs. Lindley and Ortgies.
Until recently, Lehman's main problems were the strong rebuttals by renowned musicologists. Then he was upset—as he acknowledged in his review of UT—at my lack of endorsement for his purported "Bach temperament". and wrote his review as a frontal—and futile—attack against the UT book. His arguments now fully debunked in my response, Lehman, unrepentant, in the above-mentioned webpage has recently retorted stating (among other assertions easy to disprove) that I have misrepresented both his review and my own book. Thus Lehman has boldly moved, from the foggy battlefield of Bach's musical practice, into a controversy about the exact words contained in published writings. Now, any English reader can collate the UT book, review and rebuttal, and easily tell right from wrong. I wish Dr. Lehman good luck, for he will need it.
Claudio Di Veroli
Bray, Rep. Ireland, March 2011
|