temperaments again

[Howard S. Rosen]

Howard writes:
<< Absolutely!!  You are under the impression that the purpose of a
modulation
> is only to hear a color change. Wrong! The beauty of a modulation is the
> *trip* not the *destination*.

Ed Foote responded and my comments are interspersed:

    That is not my impression of modulation.  I expect modulation to create
a
change of musical tension.

**You expect it because that's what happens with HT's. Classical composers
did not necessarily expect it otherwise they would not have modulated
similarly as per Sonata form in their orchestral works where temperament
does not play a part.

 Going to another key creates a change by the
movement itself in any tuning, however in WT, modulation can create  a
different musical quality, ( if the composer desires, there is that "key
choice" thing again).

**Classical composers followed a fairly strict pattern of modulation. Their
choice was not arbitrary and related  to tension as you suggest. Common
modulations were tonic to dominant, Schubert favored tonic to sub-dominant,
Tonic minor to tonic major, tonic minor to relative major etc. These choices
were the same no matter what key they started out with.

 In ET, the same level of dissonance exists in all
keys, so you may be in a new place, but the harmonic background is still the
same.  Sorta like getting off the train in the exact same place you left.
My
musical preference likes to go to different places.

There is nothing wrong with getting off the train in the same place after an
exciting trip. In addition, a train ride can take you through exciting
places and get you to an equally restful new place and offer a refreshing
new sight/site. This is exactly what happens in the sonata when going from C
to G, or Bb to F etc.


    When I asked about why not use just one key,  I was referring to the
choice of key for a composition, as in the sonata, NOT lack of modulation.
This choice merely denotes the home key, from which all modulations take the
listener to and from.  If there is no difference between keys, then why not
compose everything in the easiest key to play (making say, B the tonic,
since
it is "hand friendly",) and then modulating through the normal sonata form
changes.
  This would be limiting.

***Don't be mislead into thinking that B is the easiest key for a pianist
simply because the *scale* of B major is very hand friendly.


      So what does modulation do? It seems that when composers modulated
from
one key to another, they were changing the musical tension of the music.

***That is your assumption that I do not necessarily agree with. There is no
measurable increase in tension of orchestral pieces and they followed the
same classical rules as piano works.


  If we study the way they did this, we find that when increasing the
musical
tension, the modulation moves farther into the dissonance,

**Not always. The most common modulation was to the dominant which was
merely mildly, if at all, increased in tension.

and when calming
down, the modulations move toward consonance.  This makes use of
involuntary,
emotional, responses in the listener.

**This is purely subjective. When I hear a dominant modulation in a
classical piano work, I feel at rest when the new tonal center is arrived
at, even if by your rules of HT the new key is supposed to have more tension
by virtue of its increased size of 3rds.

 We react to dissonance differently
than we do consonance, and it seems that Beethoven and Schubert et al knew
this and used the inequality to increase the effects they were after.  When
relaxing the musical tension, they did not go to a key with more dissonance
in the thirds, they went the other way.    You rarely find classical piano
compositions approaching their finales from a more consonant key, making
their last modulation to a "higher" key, one with more "color".  This would
not use the differences to create "resolution", but rather, unresolved
expectation, leaving listeners restless; decreasing the feeling of
resolution
simply by involutary means.  There is a bit of the "tight-shoe" theory here.

    By moving from one key to another in ET, all you do is change pitch
centers, so the increase or decrease in tension must be solely a function of
the composition and intellectually created in the minds of the listener.  In
a WT, those same modulations have the added circuitry of increasing or
decreasing levels of dissonance, which has been proven to create additional
emotional response in the majority of listeners.  Thus my contention that
the
emotional effects are heightened in WT.  This is also the major response I
have gotten from pianists.

**I hope you relate to your pianists the response you are getting from me
and many other musicians who are equally qualified to make musical judgments
to the contrary.

     And for the record, my entire endeavor inre temperament has been to
encourage a multi-temperament approach by the modern technician, using
modern
technology.  To do this requires a certain amount of judgement, hence risk.
Some cannot stand to be put in this position of decision-making, thus the
status quo represents safety and they will defend their reliance on it to
the
end. Others will be attached to ET because of the sameness to be found in
the
keys and the beauty of a 14 cent third.  To each his own.

** I agree completely. I have heard beautiful music from HT but I do not
subscribe to the premise that music sounds best when played in the
temperament of the time in which the composition was written. That's why I
could not get past Jorgenson's (sp) first page to his large work.

      I have NEVER suggested that any one temperament supplant all others,
so
my focus is NOT on elimination of ET, WT, MT or AFT, but rather, the
addition
of more choices to our tuning capabilities.
     To those that would claim that any one temperament is superior to all
others, I can only say, "Perhaps you have your head out of the sand, there
is
more than one way to tune a piano".
Regards,
Ed Foote RPT

****AMEN****


Howard S. Rosen, RPT
7262 Angel Falls Ct.
Boynton Beach, FL  33437

561-737-2057
hsrosen@earthlink.net