[pianotech] Temperaments

A440A at aol.com A440A at aol.com
Mon Feb 16 04:35:28 PST 2009


Julia  writes:

<<   Why are the P5ths tempered in those (C,  F & G) commonly used keys, yet 
the article states that they should be the  most pure keys? Shouldn't it be 
the opposite? Namely, the black keys be  tempered then?
Am I missing something here? >>

         Greetings,
  Acoustically, thirds and fifths work in opposition to one another, which 
generally means that in the traditional form of well temperament, the keys with 
the most highly tempered thirds will have the purest fifths, and the keys with 
the purest thirds will have the most highly tempered fifths. It is overly 
simplistic to regard a given key as highly tempered or not.   
   If performed on a well-tempered keyboard, this harmonic contrast can be 
heard in Chopin's music, where he often places a pure melodic line above a very 
expressive harmony, creating a subtle musical texture that is unavailable in 
20th century tuning.
Regards,



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