Sun, 18 Jan 2009 08:38:04 -0500 "Ed Sutton" <ed440 at mindspring.com> wrote: > Sun, 18 Jan 2009 08:38:04 -0500 "Ed Sutton" <ed440 at mindspring.com> wrote: > > I am so bored with the search for the one-and-only authoritative way to > perform a piece of music. Why must we assume that Bach or Schubert tuned > their instruments exactly the same way every time they tuned, even when they > performed the same piece? We just don't know, but considering the genius > evident in their available works, we would be foolish to assume they were > not extremely sensitive to subtle tuning differences when they chose to be, > and used them in clever ways. Did Bach intend a go-to-sleep meantone tuning > for the Goldberg Variations? > > Speaking of Bach, there's actually quite a bit known about how he felt about meantone. For one, he was reputed to be an expert tuner, capable of tuning a harpsichord in 15 minutes (think at last 3 stops). Then again, he had a bit of a sense of humor - reportedly, during informal occasions, he loved to play pieces in meantone that weren't suited for it, containing chords that involved the "wolf" interval - and poke fun at such a tuning system. It is widely believed that he favored the circulating WT type tuning. (OK, let's not get into Bradley Lehman for now, OK?) And then there's the whole business with the Well-Tempered Clavier and exactly what he was trying to demonstrate. The idea keeps popping up from time to time that it was ET that he was trying to demonstrate (sometimes even among the not totally historically ignorant). To which I say - if it's ET, why bother writing 24 preludes and fugues? Why not just take one major piece and one minor piece, and play them in all the different keys? The point of writing those 24 preludes and fugues (twice) would be to clearly demonstrate the character of each key - which suggests a WT type tuning, and the presence/significance of key differences. At least that's a standard argument... Israel Stein
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC