temperament

temperament, in music, the altering of certain intervals from their acoustically correct values to provide a system of tuning whereby music can move from key to key without unacceptably impure sonorities. It is particularly necessary for keyboard instruments, the pitches of which cannot be varied in performance. Many systems have been devised, going back to the late 15th cent. "Just Intonation" refers to systems in which some fifths are tuned unacceptably small so that others may be pure. "Temperament" refers to systems that distribute the impurities throughout the tuning. Of these, "Equal Temperament" divides the octave into 12 equal half-steps, leaving all intervals except the octave slightly impure. (see tuning systems).

Bibliography

See S. Isacoff, Temperament: The Idea That Solved Music's Greatest Riddle (2001).

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temperament

In the psychological study of personality, an individual's characteristic or habitual inclination or mode of emotional response. The notion of temperament in this sense originated with Galen, who developed it from an earlier theory regarding the four “humours”: blood, phlegm, and black and yellow bile. The subject was taken up in the 20th century by Ernst Kretschmer and later theorists, including Margaret Mead. Today researchers emphasize physiological processes (including the endocrine and autonomic nervous systems) and culture and learning.