Renaissance Tuning (c. 1400–1600)

The Renaissance marks the most significant tuning revolution in Western music history: the shift from Pythagorean tuning to just intonation (for voices) and meantone temperament (for keyboards). As polyphony grew richer and major thirds became accepted consonances, the Pythagorean major third (+21.51 cents) sounded increasingly harsh. Composers and theorists sought a system that made thirds sound pure — giving rise to meantone temperament for fixed-pitch instruments and just intonation as the natural target for unaccompanied voices.

Standard Temperaments in the Renaissance Era

Quarter-Comma Meantone The dominant keyboard and lute temperament of the Renaissance (c.1500-1650). Near-pure major thirds (0.3 cents from just) at the cost of a wolf fifth. Standard for harpsichord, organ, virginal, and lute. Just Intonation (Major) The natural target for unaccompanied Renaissance vocal polyphony. Palestrina, Lassus, and the Franco-Flemish school achieved pure major thirds by ear without fixed-pitch constraints. Pythagorean Tuning Carried over from the Medieval period and still used for some early Renaissance repertoire, especially when parallel fifths are the primary texture. String players also gravitate toward Pythagorean intonation on melodic passages. Third-Comma Meantone A meantone variant used alongside quarter-comma. Provides purer minor thirds at a cost to major thirds — used in repertoire with prominent minor modes. Sixth-Comma Meantone A transitional meantone between quarter-comma purity and the wider key access of well temperaments. Used for late Renaissance and early Baroque repertoire that ventures into sharper keys.

Historical Context

Gioseffo Zarlino (1517-1590) was the pivotal theorist of the Renaissance tuning transition. His Istitutioni harmoniche (1558) argued that pure major thirds (5:4 ratio, derived from the fifth overtone of the harmonic series) should be the foundation of harmonic practice. This was directly contrary to the Pythagorean tradition. For keyboard instruments, quarter-comma meantone temperament achieved near-pure major thirds (within 0.3 cents of just) by slightly flattening each fifth by 1/4 of the syntonic comma. The wolf fifth (an extremely dissonant fifth between the last and first note in the chain) limited meantone to a restricted set of usable keys — typically no more than 8 flats to 4 sharps.

Representative Repertoire

Josquin des Prez (c.1450-1521), considered the greatest composer of the Renaissance, wrote vocal polyphony that exploits the pure major thirds of just intonation. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594) and Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594) represent the pinnacle of Renaissance a cappella polyphony in just/meantone intonation. William Byrd (1543-1623) and John Bull (c.1562-1628) composed virtuosic keyboard music that operates within the constraints of quarter-comma meantone, avoiding the wolf fifth. John Dowland's lute music (1563-1626) uses meantone tuning optimized for the fretted lute.

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Historical Era Sequence

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