Stravinsky's music (was more on )

[A440A@AOL.COM]

I wrote: 
> Stravinsky's music seems to rely on equality,  I don't know if it would 
have been created for anything else.  >>

and Billbrpt responds: 
>>To say that this music was written for or required ET is a statement pulled 
out of thin air.  It has no foundation in fact nor is there any evidence to 
support it.<<  

     Ah, yes, and there is equally little to recommend otherwise.  I based my 
statement on listening.  However, the logic for ET comes from the following: 
     He lived from 1882 to 1971, so equality was a well known tonal image in 
Stravinsky's time (something that even a die-hard temper-bender like me will 
accept) 
    His major work was done in the earliest part of the century, and though 
he composed some for the piano, his ballet and orchestral work makes use of 
the piano almost as a percussion instrument.  A temperament that didn't favor 
keys would be more attuned to the other instruments,  so ET would be a 
logical choice,even if it wasn't the newest, most scientific, modern, style 
at the time. 
    
    If Bach composed keyboard works under the influence of his period's 
intonational resources, is it a stretch to assume that Strav. did also?  The 
former had natural horns, the latter valved brass.  One favors the "natural 
harmony"  the other the scientific (1.059).  Old Bach had one foot in 
centuries-old Baroque Meantone, his latter day counterpart was composing on 
the eve of the most "modern" music ever played on the piano. 
     In 1911, Braid-White was an influential writer in the piano world, 
tuning was becoming a formalized trade and all the tools to tune ET were 
there.   If we accept that temperament can provide some compositional 
influences, why would Igor be immune?  
    I think it illogical to disassociate composers from their particular 
harmonic worlds.  The horizons were different at different times.  Even 
though a composer may carry the preceding architecture along with his work, 
it doesn't mean it is a defining trait.  (Beethoven loves to throw in 
Bach-like counterpoint in his sonatas, but it isn't what he is KNOWN for). 
    To deny ET propriety for Stravinsky's work, in favor of some earlier 
form,  it will have to shown that there was not new intentions in 
Stravinsky's  work, and what part temperament plays into that will be decided 
on comparisons, not fact.  I also believe that temperament, in the style of 
his writing, is almost incidental. 
 
       I've heard this music on early and modern tuning, I still say  
"Stravinsky's music seems to rely on equality".  I'll add Debussy and Ravel 
in there too.  The use of ET seems to make this music "hang together" better, 
 for not only myself, but numerous listeners that have made the comparison.  
One tech in the Crystal City class said that a Ravel piece  seemed to "fall 
apart" in the nonET I was using.  Most others agreed.  Some disagreed, but we 
all got a peek at others tastes. 
        The world of esthetic values is really no place for "facts" or proof. 
 It is a place for sensitivity.  So, this may all be thin air;  that's what 
angels dancing on pins breathe,  but better thin than hot! 
Regards, 
Ed Foote RPT