[CAUT] temperament

[Porritt, David]

With this thread on temperaments, I just had a very interesting experience.  April 1st and 5th we had performances of Bach's Well Tempered Clavier.  Book one was done on the 1st and Book 2 on the 5th.  15 different players were involved overall.  The pianos were tuned in a Werckmeister III temperament.  The pieces were played in chromatic order.

While no one wanted to say they didn't notice a difference some were considerably more aware of the temperament than others.  Of course those that did the F#, B etc. noticed more of a difference than the C, F & G players.  One of our artists-in-residence planned the whole thing and made the playing assignments and I came out of retirement for a few days to do the tuning.  Everyone - performers and audience alike - seemed to get a lot out of it.

At least the temperament in this case was not that difficult a call.  I'm not sure what I'd recommend for the cycle of Chopin Preludes or especially the Rachmaninoff Preludes.

dave


David M. Porritt, RPT
dporritt at smu.edu<mailto:dporritt at smu.edu>

From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Fred Sturm
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 11:19 AM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] temperament

On Apr 13, 2010, at 8:08 AM, Laurence Libin wrote:


 I've heard some recent copies of baroque organs with temperaments so extreme that they're initially jarring, but they're fine for music intended for them--but that repertoire is limited and takes getting used to.

            Yes, those French Ordinaire tunings (sometimes with the name d'Alembert or Rousseau appended) are pretty extreme, yet in France they seem to have been the standard alternative to 1/4 comma meantone from something like 1700-1790. Rameau's comment, in writing in favor of ET, was that one reason he preferred it was that he didn't need to cringe when hitting all those out of tune intervals. The Italians and the Germans had a similar reaction. But so much of the standard French literature, both for organ and for harpsichord, was written during that period, and should be played on that tuning if one wants to be authentic.
            If the composer wants to use the varied "in tune" and "out of tune" as an expressive devise, well and good. But for some composers (like Rameau), wanting the freedom to move harmonically at will, it became an impediment.
            It is somewhat similar when we, today, try various UETs. If they are piquant enough for people to notice, there will be the perception of "out of tune" from many listeners, when certain combinations are played. And if we tune mild enough that people don't notice, one questions whether it makes any difference.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
fssturm at unm.edu<mailto:fssturm at unm.edu>
http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/FredSturm

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