Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:06:33 -0500 Alan Eder wrote: > Israel, > > > > I apologize for the neophyte nature of my inquiry. My relative newness to the > subject is showing! ?I suppose I could try to pass the blame for being so > pedestrian on to the individual who asked me what temperament Schubert might > have used, but that would be dodging the responsibility of my having relayed the > question without first questioning it myself. ?Your point is well taken. ? Alan, I did not mean to disparage your inquiry in any way - sorry if it appeared that way. Questions of this type are very common, and there is even literature and websites that attempt to correlate specific tempering systems with specific figures in music history, based on publication dates - and without a thorough understanding of the underlying historical and social context (how musicians lived and worked) it's easy to jump to all sorts of conclusions... Fred did a very nice job of analyzing the issues and suggesting a plausible approach to choosing appropriate temperaments - so I thought he should be complimented. Your question, in prompting his response, was extremely valuable. Remember, the only dumb question is the one that isn't asked... Best wishes, Israel > > > The underlying issue for the pianist in question re: Schubert is really whether > or not ET is historically appropriate. ?According to Jorgensen--and contrary > what this pianist is being taught (at the doctoral level, no less)--, the answer > is no. ?Beyond that, it is, as you point out, a matter of conjecture. ?Though we > will never know what keyboard composers of centuries past were hearing when they > played a certain chord or made a modulation, we do know that prior to the > twentieth century, they WERE hearing non-homogenized harmonies. > > > > > Thanks for bearing with me as I ramp up on historical temperaments. ?Now off to > put Werkmeister III on our double manual harpsichord. ?Should I mention it to > the harpsichordists and others playing with it? ?It might be more interesting > not to...
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