In a message dated 12/13/99 5:28:45 AM Pacific Standard Time,
remoody@easnet.net (Richard Moody) writes:
<< I would welcome any evidence from the composers themselves. If temperament
was so important they surely must have said something on the subject.
There is no direct evidence (to my knowledge) of how Mozart's or
Beethoven's piano was actually tuned or which tuning if any they did
prefer. >>
I have a little speculation of my own. That there was a prevailing style of
temperament at the time, 1/5 Comma Meantone for Mozart and 16/ & 1/7 Comma
Meantone for Beethoven but also various kinds of Well-Tempered tuning. They
may have had as little concern about *exactly* how tuning was done as many
people have today. It was all "Equal" as far as they were concerned even if
it wasn't anything like our modern ET at all.
Still, they were unconsciously affected by the qualities of the harmoniies
produced in various keys and chose to write in specific keys according to the
sound they *expected* to hear from any particular key, regardless of the
exact temperament used. Remember also that these composers did not use the
modern piano as we know it. They used much more unstable instruments. The
accuracy of both temperament and octaves could not compare to what we require
in modern piano tuning today.
Ed Foote writes:
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC