HT's

[Gregory Torres]

Billbrpt wrote: (snipped)

> 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.

Bill,While I  would definitely agree that if you were playing a piece and one or
two particular keys contained more wildly beating intervals it might force you to
play softer,  forcing someone to play softer because of this would be an
irritation.  And I don't agree at all that ET leads naturally to mediocre playing.
That is a pretty generalized statement simply of personal opinion

>  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.

OK, here it comes...

> 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, I respect your knowledge on HT's and have enjoyed the last couple weeks
thread but I think the broad generalizations and assumptions are starting to come
back again. Please, let's not get started on the "negatives" of ET's and stick to
the subject. I would rather read about the possibilities with regards to HT's than
cutting down ET and anything related to it in general. Thanks.

Sincerelyandnotwantingtoprovokebutpolitelyasking,     ;-)
Greg Torres