How to tune in Bach's Temperament

We tuned our concert grand Bösendorfer 225, but also other modern pianos in recent times with very good success occasionally in Bach's temperament. The tuning with an electronic tuner was based on the adjacent table (sorry, in German only).

Starting from the C in the middle of the keyboard (C1), the first series of steps was to tune the entire octave up with the values of cent differences as given in the column "hat Cent-Anzeige". The tuner was set to 442 Hz. Our normal pitch on the modern pianos is 443 Hz, but since the majority of the pitches in Bach tuning is a little higher than in the evenly tempered tuning (often 4, once even 8 cents higher), whereas the A is defined with 0 cents, this results "on the average " to our normal pitch.

The fortepiano, whose normal pitch is 435 Hz, requires analogously to set the tuner to 434 Hz. With 435 Hz setting, the pitch would "on the average" be a little too high.

In the next step, we take care of the three pure fifths E - B, B - F, F - C-sharp (the fractional cents values are only approximations, but you cannot tune with absolute precision with the electronic Tuner anyway). It is useful to also take care of the lower b and the upper C-sharp2.

Further corrections by ear are then usually unnecessary.