Temperament, A pianist responds

[David Love]

Comments interspersed.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Birkett" <birketts@wright.aps.uoguelph.ca>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: December 11, 2001 11:01 PM
Subject: Re: Temperament, A pianist responds



> Read carefully. I make no conclusions about a dead composer's preferences.

>Do you imagine if Beethoven could play his pieces on a modern
> concert grand that he would prefer the pianos of his day? (My >question)

Yes. (Your answer)



> Beethoven's piano music was written
> for the instruments at his disposal, not for a modern piano.

Beethovens music was written on the instruments at his disposal.  Whether
you can extrapolate to say that it is therefore not for modern instruments
is a personal opinion.

> > Recall that
> > Beethoven was writing piano pieces with notes that did not yet exist on
his own piano.
>
> Oh? which notes? which compositions? which piano?

The example that comes to mind is of a low Eb that appears even though his
piano ended at low E.  I don't recall the piece exactly and will have to
look it up, maybe op. 7 or op. 81a.  But there are several other places
where octave passages are modified to sixths because the octaves would have
extended beyond the boundaries of the keyboard.   I believe the piece in
question op. 90 has such a spot.  Again, I will have to look them up co cite
specific measure.   But these are issues which are fairly well know and
documented and, to be fair, are argued back and forth as to what is the
correct way to approach them



>  But many fine pianists don't
>  prefer it and find the larger range and tonal palette of a modern piano >
offering a greater means of expression without compromising the
>  intentions of the composer.

> Why would you want a range larger than is required by a composition? How
do the extra notes help in interpretation?

By range, I mean dynamic range not note range.




This all has gotten a bit away from the original discussion which was to do
with HT's.  I cited Beethoven as an example of where E major in WT may not
necessarily follow the philosophy of the use of HT's in particular piece.  I
am well aware of the debate about historical instruments.  The camps are
represented by those who feel that music such as we are discussing must be
played on the instruments of the day  (Wanda Landowska, "You play Bach your
way and I'll play him his way."  or something like that), and others who
feel that the music transcends the time in which it was composed.  I
recognize the value of returning to the historical instruments, and yes,
even temperaments for pedagogical and research purposes.  But I am more
inclined to believe that the music transcends the time and can be faithful
to the composer while performed on modern instruments with modern
temperaments.  This is not a new or novel idea.  Scholars much more
knowledgeable than I have debated this for years.  Attempts at understanding
the intention of the composer is what musical interpretation is all about.
We are lucky in the case of Beethoven that he wrote so many dynamic
instructions in his pieces.  Not enough to answer every question, but
certainly more than, say, Mozart.  Are we to assume that Mozart should be
played with only the dynamic markings that he happened to write?  Or should
we try to interpret his intentions about phrasing, crescendi and
decrescendi, etc. based on what we know about his music and the traditions
that have been passed down.  There is always room for interpretation, that
is what makes each performers performance unique.

I don't think there is a definite answer to these questions and wasn't
trying to argue my way or the highway.  I was initially responding to what I
perceived as rigidity in the acceptable way to experience music.  It is
certainly easier to argue that Beethoven should only be heard on the
instruments of his day.  But it is speculation that the instruments drove
the compositions.  To do otherwise is to do what you and others have
erroneously accused me of doing, and that is to impute motivations to the
composer that we can't really know.   I certainly can't argue that had he
had the choice he would have selected the more modern piano.  But since he
didn't have the choice, we can no more argue that he would have chosen his
own instruments.

This discussion has been interesting.  For me it's time to move on.

David Love