What does The Well-Tempered Clavier sound like in actual well temperament?

This episode features Glenn Gould's 1963 recording of Johann Sebastien Bach's Prelude No. 1 in C Major from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, BWV 846 (1722). I also tempo-mapped Gould's performances of other WTC preludes and used them for the tempos of the MIDI versions of the various movements.A small correction: I say in the episode that five-limit just intonation is the basis for Western European tuning systems. This is only true from the Renaissance onwards. Medieval Europe used Pythagorean (three-limit) tuning. Also, just intonation was probably more of a theoretical ideal than a practical tuning method.Also, at one point I refer to Bach’s F-sharp major prelude as the F-sharp minor prelude.I did the alternative tunings using MTS-ESP. I used the following tuning ratios for the just intonation parts:* C - 1/1* C# - 16/15* D - 9/8* Eb - 6/5* E - 5/4* F - 4/3* F# - 45/32* G - 3/2* Ab - 8/5* A - 5/3* Bb - 9/5* B - 15/8I also used quarter-comma meantone, Andreas Werckmeister's temperament III from 1681, and Johann Kirnberger's well temperament as described in a letter to Johann Nikolaus Forkel in 1779.In actual practice, Europeans tended to center their tuning around D rather than C. I stick to C for ease of explanation, not historical accuracy.Here are some real humans performing music in historical European tuning systems:* Alice Borciani, Eva Saladin, Brigitte Gasser and Johannes Keller perform a Sabbatini motet in quarter-comma meantone* Daniel Adam Maltz demonstrates Kirnberger* Carl Radford demonstrates Young’s temperament* John Moraitis demonstrates quarter-comma meantone, Rameau and Kirnberger* Alice M. Chuaqui Baldwin demonstrates quarter-comma meantone and Werckmeister IIII decided not to talk about Bradley Lehman’s proposed Bach tuning; I like how it sounds, but the controversy around it was too complicated for me to get into. You can hear Dr Charles Tebbs demonstrating Lehman’s tuning, and if you have a longer attention span than I do, you can watch Lehman tune a harpsichord.Wikipedia has a good summary of the various theories about Bach's tuning.John Carlos Baez explains quarter-comma meantone with math and diagrams.Kyle Gann's web site has lots more material on historical tuning with audio examples.For a deeper dive, try the tuning and temperament chapters in The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory. Get full access to Ethan teaches you music at ethanhein.substack.com/subscribe