What's the big deal?

[Susan Kline]

List -- software got confused. I hope this isn't double posted.
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Hello again, Bob

Comments interspersed.

>>  I think we are in agreement as to the greater importance of functional
>>  harmony, compared to temperament. 
>
>Not sure I meant to prioritize. Not that it's invalid, just that it doesn't
>serve a purpose. The two are separate but complementary; each is a means of
>expression.

In general I agree about not making an issue of this at the expense of that.
The reason I stressed priorities here is that people have been talking as if
differing tonal color was the _only_ reason for modulation, when for a lot
of highly satisfactory music it is not even there. I think it's easy for us
to get caught up in our little world of pitch choices and voicing and touch,
and forget that it all plays a part in a much larger whole. 

>>Temperament is a learned taste, not an
>>  automatic reaction. What one is used to sounds "right" and everything else
>>  is "out of tune" until one has learned it as well. 

>I'm with you here, except that "right"ness is also moot, or at least always a
>matter of opinion, because whether MT, WT, or ET (which I see as a WT,
>although Owen Jorgensen doesn't) is "right" for a particular piece of music
>depends upon which problems one is trying to solve, or rather, which
>characteristic one wishes to emphasize. We delight in hearing different
>performers play the same piece, because each shows us a new way of hearing it.
>In the same way, I think we ought to treat ourselves to performances on old
>and new pianos and any temperament which is even reasonably appropriate. 
>
>Bob Davis

Yes, I think I can agree with this. It seems that after recording got well
established, the range of "acceptable" began to shrink even as the general
accuracy improved. By now, the range of "acceptable" is so narrow that a lot
of musical personality has been bled right out. Listening to old recordings
makes this very clear indeed. The temperaments wouldn't pass the exam either
-- but some of them sound awfully interesting. I doubt that the tuners who
did them had a thought about "well" vs. "equal". They just did what they had
been taught, altered over years of practice by what their ears told them. I
like the results most of the time. String intonation has drifted even
further, as has the timbre of singers.

Best wishes,

Susan 

Susan Kline
P.O. Box 1651
Philomath, OR 97370
skline@proaxis.com

"Only in a crazy world would jewels be worth more than tools."
			-- Ashleigh Brilliant