I decided to write this article because of something that I heard on Canada's CBC radio network a number of years ago. The host of the show, the late Bob Kerr, had just played a recording of the beautiful old organ at Marienhafe, in Germany, which I had listened to with immense pleasure. As an organbuilder, I am always entranced by these ancient instruments. The magic of their sound has less to do with sheer antiquity than with the musical principles they embody--not least their tuning system, or temperament. But during his commentary Mr. Kerr confessed that very idea of temperament was a mystery to him.

He was certainly not the first music lover to feel this way; yet temperament is not so arcane as it is often made out to be. That it is obscure even to most educated musicians points to a gap in their training, rather than to any difficulty inherent in the subject. Far from being esoteric, temperament is a down‑to‑earth matter, concerned with a practical problem for fixed‑pitch instruments.