---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment In a message dated 11/2/01 6:31:14 AM Central Standard Time, A440A@AOL.COM writes: > Tom Sivak writes:=20 > <<The thought that composers compose in temperaments is ludicrous. >> >=20 > (snip) To this end, I would like to=20 > hear Tom's evidence that temperament didn't influence composition. =20 > Regards,=20 >=20 I would too. Thanks again, Ed, for answering before I had the chance and I=20 must say, much better than I could have. The final movement of the 9th=20 symphony is harmonically adventurous for its time and I have always thought=20 that perhaps the reason was because Beethoven's mind had been freed of=20 conventional constraints due to his deafness. But it sure wasn't an example= =20 of Atonal Adventures. Why not write all kinds of bizarre, angular phrases=20 with sharps and flats all over the place and end the piece with a grandiose=20 chord in Db instead of D if there was no influence of temperament? In the perspective of music throughout the centuries, it is distinctly tonal= .=20 The famous melody is heard all over the world, sung and played by children=20 learning music. The foundation of the piece is very elementary and would=20 have NEVER, EVER been written in a remote key BECAUSE of the influence of=20 cycle of 5ths temperament construction. To think that temperament had no=20 influence is frankly, illogical. Let's also consider the Emperor Piano Concerto. Wasn't he also deaf when he= =20 wrote that? Now, why in the world would he have chosen the seemingly=20 illogical key of B for the middle movement when the 1st and 3rd movements ar= e=20 in Eb? Bb would have been the Dominant key. He even had to use a trick to=20 modulate back to Eb ant the end of the second movement. Why go to this kind= =20 of trouble unless there is a reason? The answer is that in a typical (for the period) WT, mild Meantone or=20 Modified Meantone, the key of B with its wide intervals provides for a much=20 more melodic and singing tone than would the key of Bb. Witness the broken=20 chords =E0 la Moonlight Sonata that avoid harsh harmony by being broken agai= nst=20 the soaring single note melody played by the piano. The whole thing would=20 have "fell apart" (as Ed recently put it), it would have had a dead,=20 uninteresting sound in Bb. When played in ET, the key of B sounds virtually= =20 identical to Bb, just a half step higher and not enough more intense to be a= =20 reason to modulate. ET takes away some of the singing tone that the melody=20 is supposed to have. The very fact that someone would think that HT's did not influence orchestra= l=20 or keyboard writing is evidence of how ET has poisoned and spoiled=20 contemporary thinking about how music really ought to sound and what the=20 reason for choosing any particular key is. That, I personally find ludicrou= s. Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/a6/9a/e6/4f/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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