2 New Articles on Website

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

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List,

Chapters 2 & 3 of Skip Becker RPT's series, The History of Tuning are now 
available on my website.

I learn a lot by re-reading thse articles. They always seem to tie into what 
I say in my own and often what is said on this list.  Recently, there was 
much discussion about whether temperament affected the way composers thought 
and composed, particularly when writing music for something other than the 
piano (or any other keyboard).

I have always thought and maintained that keyboard temperament did in fact 
have a dominant influence and still does.  Here are a few quotes from Skip's 
Chapter 3 that support that view:

The different feelings of each key were known as the *affections*, and the 
study and use of key character was consolidated into the Doctrine of 
Affections. The implications of this startling serendipity extended well 
beyond keyboard tuning. This doctrine of temperament transformed the very 
basis of music in general, and entered into the fabric of daily life. 
Shakespeare uses the metaphor in the opening of his Midsummer Night's Dream 
(1598):

      Theseus: Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword,
              And won thy love doing thee injuries,
                  But I will wed thee in another key-
                  With pomp, with triumph, and with reveling.

Rameau gives us the best description of the four major modes of feelings in 
1726:

                  For it is good to note that we receive different 
impressions from intervals
  in keeping with their different degree of alteration. For example, the 
major 3rd,
  which in its natural state (the pure 5:4 ratio) excites us to joy, as we 
know from
  experience, impresses upon us ideas even of fury when it is too large; and 
the 
  minor 3rd, which in its natural state transports us to sweetness and 
tenderness,
   saddens us when it is too small. 


The affections became requisite for a good tuning (in effect, the tail 
wagging the dog). Common temperament thus made available to musicians a 
veritable artists' palate of affects or emotions (24 modes worth, in fact), 
which, as Rameau points out: Knowledgeable musicians know how to exploit.

There is plenty more just a few clicks away.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin
 <A HREF="http://www.billbremmer.com/">Click here: -=w w w . b i l l b r e m m e r . c o m =-</A> 

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