Temperaments

[Richard Moody]

Greetings Tom Cole
	I would like to use your words to direct attention to a problem
regardng historical temperaments. (HT) that has not yet been
addressed. 

	" a well-chosen and well-executed HT tuning might very well enhance
a composition, considering,  that it was written with the
temperament, [and] used
 by that composer, in mind." 

	What were these temperaments the composers had in mind? If they did
compose for them or in them, why aren't they ever mentioned.  If
temperaments did make such a difference to the music, why didn't
composers specify which temperaments? 

	Consider Bach and his Well Tempered Clavier. (WTC). If it
was so important for it to be well tempered why did he not include
tuning instructions, or at least refer to the tuning system he
composed and played WTC in?  Since we are pretty sure he tuned for
himself, he would have  had first hand information on how to tune,
and thus easy for him to write a few instructions, yet he makes no
mention of it in WTC or any else as far as known. 
	This brings us to the sentiment of wanting to hear the music as the
composer heard it, on the instrument of his period, and if keyboard,
the tuning used. 
We really don't know what the composers used.  According to Owens and
Kellner, there appear to have been numerous  tuning systems in the
Classical era.   What we don't know is who preferred what, or who
wrote what pieces for which temperament.  Maybe  Bach meant by "Well
Tempered" ... "not hap-hazard".  

Richard Moody 
I
----------
> From: Tom Cole <tcole@cruzio.com>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Re: Temperaments
> Date: Friday, January 30, 1998 1:09 AM
> 
Material snipped......

> 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).

{...  }
> 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.
> -- 
> Thomas A. Cole, RPT
> Santa Cruz, CA