[CAUT] Speaking of Bach (was: temperament for Schubert)

[Fred Sturm]

Hi Ed,
	Anita Sullivan wrote a letter that was published in PTJ expressing  
that thought, or actually a more extreme version, with Bach switching  
MT centers for each piece. I think it is erroneous. There is ample  
evidence that JS Bach strongly favored and advocated for circulating  
temperament. His compositional style demands it. Though his suites and  
other various multi-movement works were in a single key, this was a  
reflection of the time: everyone did it that way. It was part of the  
aesthetic, having to do with the "humors" (one of the words used) as  
in choleric, phlegmatic, etc. In music one was supposed to do just one  
at a time. (Medicine was based on the same theory, with the various  
liquids of the body connected to this.)
	In any event, Bach, like Schubert later, loved to move around A LOT  
in key, within individual pieces, often to very remote keys (compared  
to most other composers of his time). Check out his b minor flute  
sonata for some of the extremes. This became a real problem when  
playing organs, whose tuning was not easily adjusted. Most organs were  
(had been) mean tone, and at least one of Werckmeister's tunings was a  
quick way to change from MT to a tolerable circulating temperament,  
but changing the tuning of only a couple pipes per rank.
	The anecdote has him tuning not before every piece, but once a day.  
Very quickly. Surely he didn't decide, "Today's the day for E minor"  
and completely adjust his instrument for that. In any case, I can't  
digest the notion, and I think you will find that scholars of tuning  
are unanimous in saying that Bach was a WT guy, not a MT guy, though  
they fight to the death about the details. The whole purpose of WT is  
that, as CPE wrote, "All keys are equally good." Why would you do a  
variable WT? Doesn't make any sense to me.
	BTW, I have raised the question of "variable MT" (ie, changing it for  
different keys) with performance practice folks, and the response I  
have got is that there is no evidence that anyone did other than one  
version of MT, with G# rather than A flat I believe. FWIW. Lack of  
evidence doesn't disprove, but it is suggestive that nobody mentions  
re-tuning for a new key.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu



On Jan 18, 2009, at 2:00 PM, Ed Sutton wrote:

> Fred, let me toss in another speculation about Father Bach.
> When we look at the suites and partitas, and the Goldberg  
> variations, we see that, like other Baroque composers, Bach was  
> content to play in one key for a very long time. When I combine this  
> with the comment that he tuned the harpsichord when he sat down to  
> play, it seems conceivable that, knowing, say, that he intended to  
> play in G major, he did his quick tuning, making sure that the G  
> related harmonies were good, and didn't worry too much about  
> refining F# or C# triads. As a practical musician of his day, he  
> would have known all the tricks for getting things done quickly.  
> (Anyone who plays harpsichord knows some of these tricks.) When he  
> really intended to play through the circle of keys, he might have  
> given more care to the extreme keys. Despite the connection with the  
> WTC and extreme keys, most of Bach's music is written in the common  
> Meantone keys, and does not need to make it around the circle of  
> fifths. What he did in improvisation is, I suppose, mostly lost to us.
>
> Ed Sutton