Temperaments

[Les Smith]

On Wed, 28 Jan 1998, Anne Beetem wrote:

> Nice post, Les.
> 
> Can we go backwards?   Look at early 17th and 16th century music.  Played
> in equal temperament, it often just doesn't make any sense for they relied
> on the purity of the intervals to convey the meaning of the music.  It is
> essential to play these in no less than quarter comma meantone, wherein
> there absolutely is no G# if there is an Ab,  there is no D#,  there is no
> Db,  no A#, no Gb,  for all thirds used in the music are completely pure.
> Fifths were not pure.  To take that music and try to play it in ET with its
> tremendously wide thirds and nearly pure fifths is to try to speak with no
> tongue.

Hi, Anne.

Actually, Bach and Scarlatti are about as far back as I go. My primary
interest has always been 19th and early 20th century music ending with
Rachmaninoff, or thereabouts. However, I used to listen, play and tune
for many other types of music. Once, when tuning for a rock band that
would one day become famous (what can I say, they paid cash!), their
keyboard man came up to me and offered some advice: "Hey, man, make sure
you tune those black keys, too! You know, I play BOTH the white AND the
black keys"! He wasn't kidding: he was dead serious. Impressed the hell
out of me and, of course, I countered with "Hey, man, you want the black
keys tuned, too, that's gonna cost you extra!". :)

Les Smith