<HTML>In a message dated 11/2/0= 1 6:31:14 AM Central Standard Time, A440A@AOL.COM writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-= LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Tom Sivak writes: <<The thought that composers compose in temperaments is ludicrous.= >> (snip)  To this end,  I would like to hear Tom's evidence that temperament didn't influence composition. &nbsp= ; Regards, Ed Foote </BLOCKQUOTE> I would too.  Thanks again, Ed, for answering before I had the chan= ce and I must say, much better than I could have.  The final movement o= f the 9th symphony is harmonically adventurous for its time and I have alway= s thought that perhaps the reason was because Beethoven's mind had been free= d of conventional constraints due to his deafness.  But it sure wasn't = an example of Atonal Adventures.  Why not write all kinds of bizarre, a= ngular phrases with sharps and flats all over the place and end the piece wi= th a grandiose chord in Db instead of D if there was no influence of tempera= ment? In the perspective of music throughout the centuries, it is distinctly t= onal.  The famous melody is heard all over the world, sung and played b= y children learning music.  The foundation of the piece is very element= ary and would have NEVER, EVER been written in a remote key BECAUSE of the i= nfluence of cycle of 5ths temperament construction.  To think that temp= erament had no influence is frankly, illogical. Let's also consider the Emperor Piano Concerto.  Wasn't he also dea= f when he wrote that?  Now, why in the world would he have chosen the s= eemingly illogical key of B for the middle movement when the 1st and 3rd mov= ements are in Eb?  Bb would have been the Dominant key.  He even h= ad to use a trick to modulate back to Eb ant the end of the second movement.=  Why go to this kind of trouble unless there is a reason? The answer is that in a typical (for the period) WT, mild Meantone or Mo= dified Meantone, the key of B with its wide intervals provides for a much mo= re melodic and singing tone than would the key of Bb.  Witness the brok= en chords à la Moonlight Sonata that avoid harsh harmony by being broken a= gainst the soaring single note melody played by the piano.  The whole t= hing would have "fell apart" (as Ed recently put it), it would have had a de= ad, uninteresting sound in Bb.  When played in ET, the key of B sounds = virtually identical to Bb, just a half step higher and not enough more inten= se to be a reason to modulate.  ET takes away some of the singing tone = that the melody is supposed to have. The very fact that someone would think that HT's did not influence orche= stral or keyboard writing is evidence of how ET has poisoned and spoiled con= temporary thinking about how music really ought to sound and what the reason= for choosing any particular key is.  That, I personally find ludicrous= . Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin</HTML>