[CAUT] well tempered / Which Bach ?

[A440A at aol.com]

Fred writes:

<< Where I lose Lehman is in his second article, with all the  
"proof" having to do with things like size of EG# M3 and the like. I  
have my doubts that there was ever that degree of hyper-sensitivity to  
minute shadings on the part of composers. Not impossible, but unlikely  
IMO. I think the general shape is what mattered, when it mattered  
(which certainly isn't all the time). >>

       I agree.  It is very plausible that musicians were using 
Werckmiester's general instruction to stagger the sizes of the tonic thirds from the key of 
C around the circle.  This is the near universal form of tuning that 
Jorgensen documents through many, many theorists and writers from 1681 through 1885.  
There is a finite amount of tempering that must be spread among the 12 keys, 
and how it was historically done was near constant.  The main differences in 
temperaments is how gradual the changes were, and how extreme the range.  
  By range, I mean the distance between the tempering of C-E and the 
tempering of F#-A#.  If you want a pure C-E, you are going to have to put a lot of 
tempering somewhere else, usually in the thirds of B, C# and F#. The Kirnberger 
tunings have a Just C-E, and three 21 cent thirds to accomodate the left-over 
dissonance.  If you compromise C-E by 5 cents, you can soften up the higher 
keys a great deal.  Or, as Young does, temper C-E by about 6 cents and have only 
one third that carries a full syntonic comma (F#-A#).  
      Any musician that was tempering their own keyboard might very well have 
allowed any key higher than they would use to absorb a lot more tempering, 
the modified meantones show how far this could be taken.  It would even be 
plausible that many keyboardists would tune only what they needed for a given 
performance, doing the extra work to spread the comma farther only when they had to 
modulate farther.  
   Today?  The 21st century ears are tender, indeed.  If hit with a lot of 21 
cent thirds, many modern musicians recoil.  This is not only due to the width 
of the third, but the manner of playing them!  Enid Katahn has clearly 
demonstrated that music in very remote keys can be played harshly or expressively. 
The quality of the sound is not totally a function of how tempered the 
intervals are, but rather, how well the performer can use the greatly expanded 
resources.
Regards,  
      
Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
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