(careful, it is about temperaments)

[A440A@aol.com]

David writes:
 
>>Since the predominant choice of keys, as you have outlined, is in 3 sharps
or less (mostly less) it may also suggest that composers were selecting keys
to avoid the effects of unequal temperaments present in the outer keys
rather than to take advantage of them. << 

     The "home key" is merely the beginning point.  As was pointed out 
earlier, in sonata-Allegro form, the composers began in one place, then began moving 
farther and farther away from it, going through a variety of keys in harmonic 
exploration, before returning to the "home" key. As certainly as rest is more 
blessed after labor, as water is more satisfying after drought, and love is 
more cherished after lonliness, harmony is sweeter for the dissonance that 
precedes it.  Braid-White chose to quote Plutarch in his book, "Music, to create 
harmony, must investigate discord".  

>>The fact that the selection is quite narrow and weighs in heavily on the
less "colorful" side of the circle of fifths suggests to me that unequal
temperaments certainly did influence choice of keys, but not in the broader
sense of a wider or more "artistic" vocabulary, but rather in the narrower
sense to avoid intervals that on the piano as it was tuned just didn't sound
that good.<< 

    I see this entirely differently!  Beethoven didn't avoid much, instead, 
he gained a reputation by writing farther out than anyone previously had. Haydn 
and Schubert also show their willingness to use all the keys.  
 If avoidance of dissonance were the aim, the composers would have stayed 
within the home key and sonata form would not have evolved.   Instead, the use of 
"color" is there to create the contrasts necessary to fully engage the 
listeners emotions.  When Beethoven is using minor 2nds, he is obviously looking for 
dissonance, since that interval is dissonant in ANY key and ANY tuning. 
    I see the composers using the beginning key to set a relative sense of 
consonance, against which the increasingly expressive harmony of more highly 
tempered keys display their own beauty.  I call this the "Tight-shoe theory of 
harmony".  C major feels better after a  trek though  Ab or F#.  The act of 
resolution is one of carrying the listener to a more consonant place than where 
they have been, allowing them to relax.  Moving from a highly tempered key to 
one less so does this in a physiological sense, which certainly aids in engaging 
the mind and emotions.  This is a non-voluntary response to dissonance.  
    The true art of composition in the classical era was to move the listener 
into ever increasing dissonance without it becoming obvious, then bringing 
the resolution by moving back into consonance.  It is a delicate art, but causes 
the listener to become emotionally involved on a subliminal level.  It is 
this rising and falling level of dissonance that creates the attraction.  I 
suggest that this is the reason that resolutions were never made to a key that was 
higher in the circle of fifths, the rise in stimulation that results from 
moving into higher dissonance goes against the grain of resolution.  This is also 
why I believe that keys like B and F# were so difficult to use, because it is 
very difficult to resolve back to home in these keys!  
    I demonstrate this easily enough.   On a well-tempered piano, even with a 
Young temperament with its 21 cent F#-A#,  I can begin with C and play a 
circle of triads through the octave, (C-F-Bb-Eb-Ab-C#-F#-B-E-A-D-G-C) and 99% of 
the listeners never consciously register the change of tempering.  However, if 
I move from C directly to B, or F#,  it becomes obvious to almost all that 
there is a distinct difference to the quality of sound.  
    If we listen intellectually, as us tuners are wont to do, we hear 
unevenness, but the normal music lovers I have encountered don't.  They are hearing 
the music, not the tuning.  This was brought home by the response to the 
Pathetique we recorded on the Prinz temperament on "Beethoven in the Temperaments".  
By and large, other techs told me how grating the middle section was to them, 
yet, I got more positive comments on that passage from music lovers and 
musicians than anything else I have done.  I chose this temperament for this piece 
because I wanted a passage that used the maximum expressiveness of WT, which 
in this case is the 21 cent third (syntonic comma) in Ab.  
     We listen as a function of our past.  That is where our expectations 
come from, and what we must compare all else to.  Our 20th century past is, by 
and large, equal temperament.  However, growth requires change, and change 
requires courage.  My aim has been to encourage others to experiment with an open 
mind.  Once that is done, an individual's choices is informed and valid, 
regardless of what direction results, whether it be a totally new universe or 
comfortably secure in the status quo.  
  If I may quote Tolstoy: 
     "I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the 
greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if 
it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which 
they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they proudly taught to 
others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their 
lives."  
    My own life has become much richer for questioning how I tune.  I did 
have to give up a single-minded attachment to my ET, but it has been worth it.   
After 17 years of mono-temperament work, the incorporation of a variety of 
temperaments greatly increased my appreciation of music.  It has also begun 
creating a new demand for my services as well as bedrock loyalty in my customers, 
new respect around Music row, the town, the university, and the higher prices I 
can command, (currently tunings are $130 and I still have to turn down work). 
    My whole point is that technicians can make a positive impact in their 
lives by broadening their aesthetic sense of harmony, by becoming familiar with 
temperament's history and its application.  To this end,  I continually ask 
myself if I know what I like or do I like what I know.   
Regards,






Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html