[CAUT] Goldberg Variations

[Ed Sutton]

Fred-

I believe you are confusing Valotti, Valotti-Young(Transposed Valotti) and Young.
See Jorgensen pp. 180, 254 and 264.

Ed Sutton
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Fred Sturm 
  To: caut at ptg.org 
  Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 6:23 PM
  Subject: Re: [CAUT] Goldberg Variations


  On Sep 18, 2009, at 3:28 PM, Paul T Williams wrote:


    Bilson likes Valotti. (or Young)  I've never tuned to Young.  How different are they? 

    Paul' 


  The difference between Vallotti and Young is a transposition of a fifth: Vallotti is 6 pure 5ths downward from F, 6 1/6 comma narrow 5ths upward from F. For Young, the note in the middle is C (down from C, up from C). This is not noticeable to most people, but does favor the sharp keys a little over the flats. Vallotti is the preferred vanilla well temperament these days, and I think the axis on F is more in keeping with the bulk of the German temperament guys of the time.


    All, Our harpsichord professor and students will be performing the Goldberg Variations on our harpsichords next month. She wants a well temperament that works for the Goldbergs. I have been tuning the Bach/Lehman but she does not particularly like it this work. There is some time to experiment with various temperaments but I though it might be helpful to query this list for some suggestions? 
    Thanks! 
    Don 



  I'd say try Vallotti, then Werckmeister III moving to the more colorful side of the spectrum. Kirnberger III is possible (not that different from W III), but is contrary to the report (given by Kirnberger himself) that Bach said all M3s should be wide (K III has CE pure). And K III is less interesting, because it has four 1/4 comma 5ths in a row (CGDAE), and the rest of the 5ths pure, hence more Pythagorean 3rds and less overall variety.
  In the other direction, there was a modern (1979) creation by John Barnes, published in Early Music and based on analysis of number of occurrences of the various M3s in the WTC. It is actually the same as Vallotti except that one of the 1/6 comma 5ths is moved, from EB to BF#. This yields one less Pyth M3, and a little more variety.
  And one shouldn't discount the ET possibility. A very eminent Dutch temperament scholar, with one of the most impeccable reputations for objectivity in the field (pretty rare), Rudolf Rasch, has opined that ET is as likely as any, and more likely than most, of the candidates people argue about as "what Bach used."
  I'm not sure there are any other really significant candidates out there: that is, the differences are mostly details that could easily be lost in human error of execution. It is always possible to approach ET more closely than Lehman, but I suspect the prof objects to Lehman as not colorful enough, rather than too colorful. Unless it is the fact that Lehman has the strange EG# largest M3. In which case Vallotti would cure that.

  Regards,
  Fred Sturm
  University of New Mexico
  fssturm at unm.edu









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