HT's

[Tom Cole]

Susan Kline wrote:
 
Tom Cole wrote:
> At the moment, my wife is playing Schumann (Blumenstuck op 19 in Ab
> major). It sounds offal...
 
Tom, could you do something for me? If the piano is still in the
Valotti-Young, could you sit down with the Blumenstuck by Schumann, and
play through it very slowly? When it sounds like "offal", could you
analyze
for me which intervals are bothering you the worst, and which direction
you
would move them? i.e. is it a busy fifth (too narrow)? a wide major
third (too fast)? a narrow major third (too slow)? or a series of
intervals like consecutive thirds or sixths which is too uneven?

Susan,

Correction: Blumenstuck is in Db, but spends some time also in Ab, Gb
and E.

In answer to your questions, my major concerns are with the fast major
thirds and, therefore, major tenths and seventeenths. Db - F, for
example, is twice as fast as I think it should be. Ab, the five chord,
is equally strident. In measure 27 and 28, there is a nice progression:
F7, Bb min, Ab7, Db, C7, F, C7/F, F. I can almost tolerate the noisy Ab
and Db chords when they resolve in the consonant F. But playing in the
tonic Db with Gb for a subdominant and Ab for a dominant (don't even try
to count the beats in the ii chord), the only respite is to modulate
into another key. Conclusion: this piece needs a much milder HT,
especially considering that chord progressions are what this piece is
all about and the tune is somewhat secondary.

As for your other questions, I don't have much problem with the slower
thirds (major) - kind of a pleasant change from the busier ET thirds. If
I have any problem with a quiet M3, it's knowing that there is a price
to pay somewhere else.

Major sixths I'm just as concerned with but the complementary intervals,
m6 and m3, are of lesser consequence, slow or fast.

I thought I'd be more concerned about the fifths but I don't notice them
in the music; I don't play Gregorian chants and in classical and later
forms, the thirds seem to dominate, or can by chord voicing. But if
there are temperaments where the thirds are slow and the fifths fast,
then I may have a different opinion. 

So, I can tolerate some alteration of beat speeds but if the M3s and M6s
are too fast, I feel disturbed more than I care to be.

Regards,

Tom

ps: I, too, enjoyed our Mission Inn dinner conversation and sneaking
into the concert hall afterward. Don't tell Don Mannino! Karen says to
say Hi.

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