Temperaments

[Tom Cole]

To Bill, List

Today, I heard, for the first time in a long time, a CD of Benjamin
Britten's "Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings" (recorded 1944). Dennis
Brain plays some amazing french horn solos wherin some notes sound
incredibly out of tune. There is one note that could easily be 50 cents
flat. But the effect is tremendous: the intonation of every note seems
to have been chosen for a particular purpose rather than simply being
"out of tune". I would describe it, from my ET perspective, as knowing
the rules of equal temperament and knowing when to break them.

My father was a viola player and, when I listened to him practice, I
would notice that he would deviate significantly from ET. This is one of
the expressive devices available to musicians who make their own notes;
other than the open strings, all tuning is done on the fly. Playing in C
major, say, the E would be quite sharp as would the B to create the
tension to move the piece to the following point of resolution.
Intonation would depend on whether he was going up or down the scale.
But if he modulated into a another key, other notes would be altered
(e.g., the leading tone is now a different note).

Since a pianist does not have the capability to adjust intonation when a
modulation occurs, I submit that a "neutral" tuning is a very desirable
framework to work within for the same reason that a museum has white
walls on which to hang its paintings. Colored walls might enhance some
paintings but clash with others and it would be impractical to change
colors every time paintings were changed.

The piano has no bow to make the strings sing, no ability to change
registration, vibrato was buried with the clavichord and only the organ
can swell. Each instrument, however, has its own kit bag of goodies to
evoke a range of emotions. I'll never forget listening to my teacher
play, tears welling up in my eyes from the magic she created on her
beautifully-tuned (in ET) Baldwin grand. Her technique was not flawless,
she was not a powerful player, but she had a wealth of expressive
devices which could be appreciated no matter what the tuning was. It
never struck me that she lacked anything.

The instrument should be transparent to the music. An ill-chosen
temperament would detract from a performance but a well-chosen and
well-executed HT tuning might very well enhance a composition,
considering, for example, that it was written with the temperament, used
by that composer, in mind. You might even say that the piece and the
temperament are integral. Of course, that same logic could be applied to
works written since ET. Do we now need pianos with temperament-changing
pedals, like a concert harp? How do you choose a temperament? I've got
57 programmed into my machine and I'm confused.

I would love to hear a Beethoven sonata played on a well-temperament,
for academic purposes as well as enjoyment. Unfortunately, the last
chance I had to witness an HT performance, the playing was so poor that
I left in disgust and don't have any impression of the tuning at all.
The quality of the playing is equally as important as the spacing of the
intervals. In fact, the playing is "more equal" in my estimation.

I'm not against HTs per se but think that, for most situations, an
instrument that is called upon for playing such a vast array of music
needs to have the most versatile tuning possible. If resources are
available to record one piece in a Young temperament, the next cut in a
meantone, etc. then fine. I could appreciate that kind of attention to
detail, that sense of historical setting. But as a practical matter, I
think HTs can fare better on (gasp) an electronic keyboard. I am
imagining a smart keyboard that senses the key changes and adjusts the
tuning accordingly. At the least, there could be a temperament selector
and a pitch bending pedal.

This discussion of temperaments reminds me of our endless arguments over
membership categories. Does anyone else care?


-- 
Thomas A. Cole, RPT
Santa Cruz, CA