HT's

[Billbrpt]

In a message dated 98-03-16 08:25:26 EST, you write:

<< Actually there are many dozens of serene works in the romantic period
written for keys with many sharps or flats. 
 -Mike Jorgensen >>

Thank you for pointing this out, Mike.  You will notice, if you look at the
music, that the composers often wrote dynamic markings of "p", "pp", "ppp" or
even more "p"'s sometimes.  These markings are often ignored by today's
pianists.

If you play the piece in a fairly strong temperament such as 1/7 comma
Meantone as did a Czeck pianist here in Madison Saturday night who performed
a program of Scubert, Smetana, Fibich, Dvorak & Chopin, you will naturally
want to "back off" on your attack when you play in the remote keys.  The
pianist doesn't need to be told to do so.  It will be a natural reaction to
the "bubbling" energy of the very rapidly beating intervals.

When you play these same passages in ET however, the beating is much more
tame.  You will have a tendency to play louder because the natural underlying
energy that the composers typically heard has been altered, severely watered
down.  This is yet another example of how ET leads naturally to mediocre
playing.  If you must ignore the very soft dynamics indicated by the composer,
you have less to work with when it comes to the loud parts.  The dynamics
become compressed.  It's only loud and louder,  fast and faster.

The performance Saturday night was loaded with emotional highs and lows.  The
pianist himself remarked at how he had been able to express himself over a
much greater dynamic range than he had ever experienced before.  The piano was
otherwise very well prepared and this allowed him to acheive a pianissimo that
he, himself said was rarely, if ever, possible.

Unfortunately, piano technicians of today are usually conditioned to find the
kind of energy created in the remote keys to be aurally offensive.  In their
typical approach to analysis of the piano, they pick out the intervals that
sound strange to them, "bang" on them and exclaim how "terrible" they sound.
If they get past that, in their very heavy handed, rough style, they'll find a
piece such as the Chopin "Raindrops" étude, totally and completely ignore the
dynamic markings and further prove their point.
   If not able to play such a sophisiticated piece, one might choose some
little ditty played in the sharps such as "Heart & Soul", lay right into it,
and howl with displeasure at the violent sound that is produced and
confidently proclaim that there is certain music that ONLY sounds good in ET
and therefore, ALL music must be in ET.   The next wave of attack will be to
cite the "universal" acceptance of ET, the "common law" practice of ET, Dr.
William Braid White, Helmholtz, the PTG RPT Exam, etc.
    Bill Bremmer RPT
    Madison, Wisconsin