In response to those that have talked about playing music that is not in the "right" keys for alternate temperaments, I'd like to share a little story. I work at a performing arts high school, where I freely experiment on the faculty. A few years ago, a new faculty member came that is a jazz pianist. This coincided with my interest in tuning alternate temperaments, so I set on his piano many different HTs. At that time I used the mind-set of making the thirds at the top of the circle of fifths sound BETTER than those at the bottom. An ****AHAAAA**** moment with this faculty member forced me to rethink my 'tuner's' mindset. I had recently retuned his piano and he showed up at lunch and said, "wow, what did you do to my piano? I played this chord and just had to let it ring, it sounded so great!" Being in the tuner's mindset, I thought to myself, "He must have liked the C,G, or F chord, with the real smooth thirds." Imagine my surprise when he said it was a Db arpeggio from the middle to the top; over a B, F#, and an A in the bass. *******AHAAAAAAA******** What an alternate temperament gives a composer or a pianist is like a painter's pallette; more tone color to play with. Blue isn't better or worse than red, it's just different. Likewise, C isn't better than F#, it's just different. In the hands of an accomplished composer, or performer, alternate temperaments enhance the pallette of sound available through modulation. something to chew on this weekend! Ron Koval Chicagoland _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC