Francesco Antonio Vallotti

Francesco Antonio Vallotti (11 June 1697 – 10 January 1780) was an Italian composer, music theorist, and organist.

He was born in Vercelli. He studied with G. A. Bissone at the church of St. Eusebius, and joined the Franciscan order in 1716. He was ordained as a priest in 1720. In 1722 he became an organist at St. Antonio in Padua, and would eventually become maestro there in 1730, succeeding maestro Calegari, and would hold that position for the next fifty years. Here he would meet and work with another theorist and composer named Giuseppe Tartini. Vallotti died in Padua on 10 January 1780.

Vallotti spent a great deal of thought on the theory of harmony and counterpoint. His theoretical endeavours would culminate in 1779 with the publishing of his 167-page, four volume work, Della scienza teorica e pratica della moderna musica (On the scientific theory and practice of modern music), just before the end of his life.

One of his most frequently cited contributions to theory was his development of a system of Well temperament, known today as Vallotti temperament, which was one of many systems of instrumental tuning for the accommodation of composition in every key. Specifically, the six diatonic fifths F-C-G-D-A-E-B are all tuned 1/6 of a comma flat, while the remaining six fifths B-F#-C#-G#-D#-A#-F are all tuned pure. This leads to major thirds very close to just intonation (5/4) in the major keys of C, F, and G (and their relative minor keys of A, D, and E), very "sharp" Pythagorean major thirds (81/64) in the remote major keys of B, F#, and C# (viz. their relative minors G#/Ab, D#/Eb, A#/Bb), with the intermediate keys having somewhat "sharp" thirds similar to those in modern 12-tone equal temperament. In effect, "simple" keys approach just intonation at the expense of making remote keys more dissonant than they are in equal temperament. Young temperament (q.v.) has the same structure as Vallotti's, except that there the split happens at C rather than F: that is, the block of fifths C-G-D-A-E-B-F# are all tuned 1/6 of a comma flat, and F#-C#-G#-D#-A#-F-C are all tuned pure.

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