>> I have again and again been by the amazed reaction of today's >> musicians who are struck by the beauty of meantone triads - >> admittedly, not on the piano - when first exposed to them.) >> > > > In fact, the "meantone triad" is quite common in non-fixed pitch > ensemble playing. At least, it is aimed at. I have had lengthy > discussions with a few band directors on the subject of intonation, > how they conceive of it and what they actually do. There seems to be > consensus that, at least in slow passages, players are expected to > know which note of the chord they are playing, and if it is the third, > they are to adjust it until it is "just" (beatless) to the root and > fifth (M3 move down, m3 move up). String faculty say the same thing. > "Movable Just" is the predominant aim of most non-fixed pitch > ensembles: all intervals beatless. As to how well it is achieved, that > varies a lot. > Don't forget, Fred, that in modern playing, the full affect of the "pure" triad (even when achieved) is masked by that infernal perpetual vibrato. So when exposed to, say, a professional viol consort (Fretwork) or Renaissance violin band (King's Noyse) who actually do hit and hold those triads and don't slather vibrato all over them - the effect can be of startling beauty to the modern musician (at least one with a good sense of intonation). Yes, I had clients (professional musicians) back in Boston who couldn't stop raving about that wonderful sound - and were quite disappointed to find out that it won't work quite that way on their pianos... But now we are getting really far afield... Israel Stein > When I ask about playing with piano, most commonly the discussion > begins with a grimace on their part. "Nothing one can possibly do to > the tuning of a piano will make it easy to play with, because it is > fixed pitch." I ask whether some alternate tuning might be better than > ET. The consensus seems to be that the piano should be in ET, because > all students are taught to match to ET the best they can. If it is > something else that is significantly different, they will have to make > adjustments more or less "in the dark," unless they actually practice > with, say, Valotti on a regular basis (as many Baroque musicians today > do). > > Regards, > Fred Sturm > University of New Mexico > fssturm at unm.edu > >
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