Debussy in HT or ET?

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

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In a message dated 6/27/02 12:12:12 AM Central Daylight Time, 
Piannaman@AOL.COM writes:


> I was between jobs today, listening to Debussy's Preludes in the comfort of 
> my automobile, when a thought struck me:  a true whole-tone scale can only 
> be achieved in equal temperament.  The percentage of difference between 
> each like interval would have to be the same throughout the keyboard for a 
> true whole-tone effect to be achieved.  Then I realized that this subject 
> is fodder for more enlightened minds than my own.   Any theoretical or 
>  

This may be true but it still does not mean that ET is required to play 
Debussy's music and have it sound its best.  Granted, there are many 
recordings, all presumed to be in ET but I have heard his music, including 
the pieces with the whole tone scales in other temperaments.  To me, the 
effect of ET is to always water down and homogenize the intended effects 
within the music.  A temperament with too much contrast will surely produce 
shockingly bad effects but this is not a reason to go to the other extreme of 
complete neutralization.

This calls for a comparison study.  Select some Debussy music with these 
whole tone scale features and tune in ET, then compare the way the music 
sounds using other temperaments.  I have no doubt in my confidence that a 
piano tuned in my EBVT would produce at least as good music but probably 
better than a piano tuned in ET.  So would some other temperaments. 1/4 Comma 
Meantone would probably not sound good.  But contrary to the belief that many 
people have, there are an infinite number of possibilities between ET and 1/4 
Comma Meantone.  The challenge is to discover what really does make better 
music.

By the way, this premise sounds an awful lot like Isacoff's writing in his 
recent book.  "Each tone unequivocally equidistant from the other"  (which is 
not the case in *any* properly tuned piano, ET or otherwise, when you 
consider the necessity of octave stretching).  This lofty and seemingly 
unchangeable idea of perfection leads to the false premise that it was a 
*requirement* for the music to have been written.  This is simply not true.  
The probability is that Debussy's own piano was not tuned in a strict ET and 
that whatever the temperament was, it had an influence on how he wrote.

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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Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 01:12:12 EDT
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