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Abstract
For various reasons, modern evaluations of the theorists Johann Philipp Kirnberger and Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg deserve greater scrutiny. First, new documentation indicates that Kirnberger’s claims about and accusations against Marpurg were unfounded. Second, contrary to the belief that the pseudonyms in Berlin’s Kritische Briefe über die Tonkunst ‘all … seem to have represented Marpurg’, he was merely its editor, making occasional contributions. The controversy that erupted in its pages was ignited and prolonged by Kirnberger himself; his respondent has now been identified. Third, because Kirnberger’s limited education prevented formulating his concepts in writing, he needed assistance from others, notably Johann Abraham Peter Schulz. Finally, Kirnberger’s concepts could vacillate, as shown by his alternating acceptance and rejection of equal temperament.