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

[Ed Sutton]

Fred-
I wasn't claiming retuning for every piece.
I was just suggesting that perhaps Bach was practical in a professional way, 
and that if we had a daily tuning record we might find that he didn't tune 
his instruments exactly the same in a dogmatic Bach WT, but was satisfied 
when things were good for what was needed.
I don't see how we'll ever know.
I eschew dogmatic responses of all casts, and tune to please.
Ed S.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Sturm" <fssturm at unm.edu>
To: "caut University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 7:16 PM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Speaking of Bach (was: temperament for Schubert)


> 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
>
>