Temperament Arguments

[David Love]

The arbitrary choice is that C is more tranquil and F# .  There are some
pieces where you could argue that a reverse of that system would be better.
Chopin's barcarole for example.  Or Beethoven's Opus 90.  The opening in Em
(relative of G major) which is filled with tension might benefit from a
reverse WT.  In the second movement when the piece moves to a very tranquil
E major, in normal WT a fairly "active" key, it would benefit from a quieter
key.  In all honesty, I don't think Beethoven was thinking of different
temperaments when he wrote that, though I can't, of course, know for sure.
Thus the choice of using a WT that creates more activity in E major seems to
be imposing a personal taste in tuning that is not appropriate to the piece.
I am sure there are also pieces where the reverse could be argued.  That's
why I believe that there is a certain arbitrariness to all of these
arguments.  The bottom line is that if you and those you tune for like it,
do it.  But to try and argue the superiority of WT over ET and that WT has
more color and therefore is more interesting, musical, dynamic,
multi-dimensional, etc., is a meaningless waste of time.

David Love

----- Original Message -----
From: <A440A@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: October 31, 2001 3:34 PM
Subject: Re: Temperament Arguments


> David writes:
> << My point was that many HT's make an arbitrary choice about which keys
will
> have more "intensity" due to decreasing sonority as one moves through the
> circle of fifths and away from the key of C.
>
>    Arbitrary?  I think not!  The well-temperaments are not arbitrary at
all,
> they all obey the same basic rules that Werkmeister published.  Intensity
can
> be ameliorated by using a 10th instead of a 3rd,easily enough, but
arbitrary
> denotes a more random approach than the range of WT's exhibit.
>
> >>That choice may not always be appropriate.  Chopin's etude in Ab, the so
> called Butterfly Etude, I don't think benefits from HT's that create more
> dissonance, as it were, in that key.  <<
>
> It will help to remember that the keys with the more tempered thirds also
> have the more pure fifths. The melodic line of pure intervals has its own
> effect.
>
> >>Neither would the Nocturne in Db.  That is not to say that the piece
would
> be wholly unpleasant or that a pianist couldn't give a satisfactory
> performance.  But the arbitrariness of which keys vary and how becomes
> evident in such a case.  We could, afterall, choose to have the key of F#
> with the most sonority and increase the dissonance as we move toward the
key
> of C. <<
>
>   We could, but there is no evidence thaat Brahms or anybody else used
such a
> temperament.  (this was a thought when we chose to use a DeMorgan for the
> Chopin piece on "6 Degrees",  I think it was a failure)
>
>
> >>Ed's point that I was commenting on was that modulation needed the
benefit
> of a change in key color to be interesting, and that modulation away from
the
> tonic benefited from a greater intensity offered by HT's. <<
>
>    My point was not that modulation 'needed' a change in color to be
> interesting.  My point was that modulation's effects were enhanced by the
> changes.  Modulation away from tonic may or may not create a greater
> "intensity", it may also move to a more serene harmony, depending on the
key
> choice of the composer.
>
> >> But it is hard to get away from the notion that if we use temperaments
> that create distinct differences between keys, we are imposing our own
values
> about the composer's intention more than we would be in ET.  >>
>
>   This is only true if you can offer a plausible argument that the
composer
> was using or thinking in ET.  And that is hard to do with composers that
> worked before ET was remotely possible or historically indicated.  It is
> fairly difficult to support that Bach used ET, so for us to play his music
in
> ET is a far greater impositon of values than the use of any of the WT's.
> Regards,
> Ed Foote
>