What's the big deal?

[Avery Todd]

Bill B., Ed F. and list,

   Since I'm still in the "mental" stage of learning about HT's, and not to
add any fuel to this long thread, but this past weekend was our yearly
International Piano Festival. Bob Davis' mention of Chopin (below) as well
as the 'which temperament for which composers' thread, brought this to mind.
   Below are the three programs for which I had to tune. Short of changing
pianos in the middle of the concert, is there a HT that would have been
usable for each concert? The Guiterrez program spanned app. 2 centuries
while Simon's only 2-1/2 decades. Comments? Thanks.

Avery

>> Later the
>>difference between the sweeter keys and the sourer ones was exploited
>>musically as a form of tension, and as a palette of "colors." However, it was
>>a separate issue, based on the harmonic language of each era. Chopin would
>>certainly sound different on a piano which could magically adjust each chord
>>to just intonation, just as he sounds different in ET; BUT the harmonic
>>tension, while not as pungent, would remain for those who developed a
>>sensitivity to harmonic excursions to key centers more distantly-related, in
>>the terms of common-practice harmony.
                                         -- (Bob Davis)

>Susan Kline:
>Most of the talk about "distant keys" has been about how the tempering
>produces different colors in them, as if that were the only musical effect
>of modulation. I feel that the musical effect of "roughness" or "sourness"
>is minor compared to the perceived change of center, and the distance of
>that change (speaking in terms of functional harmony) from the tonic.

___________________________
Avery Todd, RPT
Moores School of Music
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-4893
713-743-3226
atodd@uh.edu
http://www.uh.edu/music/