<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2715.400" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><EM>Susan: Bach and I, we like wide major thirds ...</EM><BR></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>I don't think you should feel so comfortable assuming that Bach liked wide major thirds. Much of Bach's keyboard music would have used meantone: more thirds that remain [close] to pure. It is possible that towards the end of his life Bach may have started a preference towards using a WT, but to assume that he changed his overall preference towards the sound of wide thirds is a real stretch (no pun intended).</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>It is plausible that he thought WT, with the wide thirds, was simply a better solution than MT. The same is true for EQT, it would be wrong to assume that people actually enjoy the sound of all the different beating intervals. The fact is that EQT allows us to do things for which HT do not allow. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>The problem with HT is that there is very little evidence to prove that 'this' composer used 'this' temperament for 'this' piece. The only thing we can do is gather as much information as possible, use a bit of logic, and try to reconstruct the past to the best of our abilities. However, there are just some things that we just should not assume.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><EM>Susan: Ah, so you're trying to tell me that Bach preferred wide major thirds on his keyboards, but wanted violinists to play with narrow ones?</EM></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>You should not consider a just major thirds as narrow; a narrow M3 implies an interval that is smaller than just. Again, I don't think that it is approperate to assume that Bach preferred wide major thirds. Susan, the keyboard has problems that strings do not have to deal with: fixed temperament. When strings and piano play together, sure, we have to do our best to make the approperate adjustments. But I have avoided talking about strings and piano together, because that situation has a few different issues that need to be taken into consideration. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><EM>Susan: </EM><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><FONT face=Arial size=2><EM>Have you the slightest evidence or logic to support this idea</EM></FONT>? </FONT><BR><FONT face="Times New Roman">Humm. . . lets try this a different way; I have already tried to explain "how things are:" do you have any recordings of the solo violin or cello partitas/sonatas/suits? All the recordings that I own, the performers use a [flexible] just intonation. Find me a recording that uses ANYTHING different; I'll be happy to go find the CD so I can listen to what you are talking about. This might be a good place to start a demonstration of string intonation. Or, maybe you could make a quick recording of how you play in EQT. Now that is something that I would really like to hear: a string player that know how to play in EQT!</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Bradley M. Snook</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>