What's the big deal?

[BobDavis88@aol.com]

from Bill Bremmer:
> When the differences in key color are removed by the use of ET, the only
>  remaining effect of modulation is a change of pitch.

Bill,
I'm guessing that several centuries of composers would disagree, or at least
call it an understatement. Permit me an example:
When I was an undergraduate at the U. of Texas, four of us musicians shared a
large two-story house. One night the roommate who lived downstairs came in
VERY late. He sat down at the piano and played a chord progression --

I - vi - ii6/5 - V - V7 -----

          and went to bed. Well, it wasn't long before there was thumping on
the stairs, and a sleepy, grumpy upstairs roommate trundled down to the living
room, played "I", and went back up to bed. That's Functional Harmony -- the
relationship between chords setting up certain expectations. The same is true
of modulation. The excursion to a distant key center sets up a tension
independent of the tuning, for those well-versed in the language of harmony. 

Bob Davis