Kirnberger-Svensson

'Kirnberger-Svensson' is a series of 5-limit Just Intonation keyboard designs that take as their starting point the temperament 'Kirnberger II' by Johann Philipp Kirnberger (d. 1783).

The first, and most simple, form of Kirnberger-Svensson simply replaced the only tempered interval in ‘Kirnberger II’ with a 27/26:

C [1/1] C# [256/243] D [9/8] Eb [32/27] E [5/4] F [4/3] F# [45/32] G [3/2] Ab [128/81] A [27/16] Bb [16/9] B [15/8]

A more recent variant, as used in I Sommarluft for clavichord, transposes the tuning to A, alters the 256/243 with a schisma to form a 135/128, and lowers the 27/16 with a syntonic comma to form a 5/3:

A [1/1] A# [135/128] B [9/8] C [32/27] C# [5/4] D [4/3] D# [45/32] E [3/2] F [128/81] F# [5/3] G [16/9] G# [15/8]

These tunings were further outlined in my Master's thesis ‘The Use of Just Intonation in My Recent Compositions’ from the University of Hong Kong.

In May 2013, the pieces Stenskrift (piano four hands) and Drömsång (pf, voice, vln, vla) used two different Kirnberger-Svensson tunings and were premiered at the Kungliga Musikhögskolan in Stockholm. According to my investigation into the subject, this marked the first occasion of a Swedish composer tuning a grand piano completely to a system in Just Intonation. These performances were parts of the humble beginning of the movement of Just Intonation musicking among Stockolm-based musicians/composers during the second decade of the third millennium.

Listen to an excerpt from Stenskrift here, performed by Mats Persson and Kristine Scholz: