On Jan 20, 2009, at 3:33 PM, Israel Stein wrote: > Then again, the harpsichord was his working instrument (when he > wasn't playing an organ, that is) but I have seen it mentioned in > several places that when playing for his own edification (hard to > believe that he actually had time for that - but I suppose he made > time) J.S. was actually quite partial to the clavichord... And of course the organ, which was his main instrument for public performance, is not by any means easy to retune. You make a decision and you live with it for a few months (and you live with the temperature variables as well, but that's another story). I think that if one wants to speculate and try to get inside the mind of Bach, one should keep the organ very much at the forefront. Among other things, the tuning is much more apparent due to volume and sustain compared to the harpsichord (instant decay), or the clavichord (so soft it is hard to hear, and variable in pitch depending on your touch). Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico fssturm at unm.edu
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