(careful, it is about temperaments)

[A440A@aol.com]

Israel  writes:

<<  As for temperament - whether or not Well temperaments were in use in 
the classical era - in today's musical context it would not be a very 
useful device to further the composer's vision, since it is not part 
of the musical vocabulary of most musicians and audiences. As has 
been extensively written here, most pianists cannot tell the 
difference, and neither can audiences. << 

Greetings, 
     I don't know what kind of audiences are being referred to, but the 
audiences around here are most definitely affected by the change.  Upon hearing the 
Beethoven Concerto III on a Young temperament, the dean of our school  told 
me, after the performance,  that he had never heard the piano sound so good, ( 
a sentiment voiced by numerous people in the lobby).  I had not told anybody 
anything about the change, (especially the youth orchesta behind the artist).  
Also, our conductor mentioned that he had never heard his kids play so well in 
tune as they did when I tuned the piano. (I didn't confuse him with the 
facts, either). 
     When I informed the dean that the tuning was a well-temperament, he 
said, "What does that mean?"  I explained a little bit, and he said, "Well, I 
don't fully understand that, but I know what I just heard, and it was stunning!".  
 
 

>>Besides, the size of todays 
concert venues and the tuning distortions required by the 
inharmonicity of the modern piano do tend to obscure the subtleties 
of Historical tunings to all but the well trained ears of Ed Foote 
and others like him (or should I say us..) << 

    My experience differs.  Ears around here are responding to the change 
quite readily.  
 
>>So playing Mozart on a  Steinway D in Avery Fisher Hall in Valotti/Young is 
probably not the 
most effective expressive device in today's musical culture to  fulfill a 
composer's "intent". 

     If the composers intent was to create a harmonic texture with the 
various characters of the keys, then there is no way to do that but by temperament.  
 
>>Today's audiences respond to 
expressive devices based on dynamics and emphasis - not to subtleties 
of tuning. Which could be one more reason why those performers who 
might have been aware of the temperament issue simply did not bother 
with it. In today's musical culture HT is definitely an acquired 
taste (or listening skill?)...<< 

      Again, I have now seen, for the last 13 years, many first-time 
listeners of WT express the feeling that there was something more engaging about the 
sound, even when they didn't know what it was.  
The psycho-emotional effects in response to varying degrees of consonance are 
involuntary, whether the listener is acclimated or not.  
 
>>Which is not to say that performers who feel that HT enhances their 
understanding of the music and aids the performance value should not 
work with it. Just that in the context of public performance it has 
little relevance to today's musical culture. >>

      Ah, that seems so sadly defeatist.  One performer that I work with has 
mentioned that now, with her knowledge of the temperament differnces, she 
plays differently, even on the usual ET she finds on the road.  She mentioned that 
now, when the modulation goes to a key like F#, she plays the music more 
tensely, in effect, "faking" the well-tempered sound.  She, and others, have 
described the WT as "power-steering" which makes the expressiveness of the music so 
much easier to create.  

     It isn't my job to tell people, and pianists,  what they should be 
hearing, but rather, to dispel the ignorance concerning temperament. After that, 
the music does all the heavy lifting.  Some are totally impervious to the 
change, while others are profoundly affected. 
Regards, 

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