And Brahms certainly wrote in a lot of outer keys. This discussion crops up periodically and I often think it’s justification after the fact. Recent research by Michael Kimbel (RPT CTE composer and musicologist) suggests very strongly that the use of ET was in practice much earlier than those arguing in favor of UETs based on historical precedent would probably find useful for their position. Arguments for UETs seem often based on a few reputable pianists who for personal reasons find it preferable. Certainly nothing wrong with that. Yet there are many pianists who don’t find it preferable but remain somewhat silent on the subject, at least publicly. Arguing taste has no chance of a resolution, of course. Arguing historical precedent does, possibly, but the research doesn’t seem to fall in favor of those who advocate UETs for that reason. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com Okay, but then it wouldn't have occurred to me that 1880 or thereabouts was still early in the 19th century. In that case, Brahms surely qualifies for your survey? Anyway, I've kind of lost the point here; is it that a predilection for keys far from C suggests less tolerance for temperaments other than ET? Laurence On Apr 18, 2010, at 4:21 PM, Laurence Libin wrote: Uh, there was a guy called "Beetgarden" or something like that. Unless by early you mean folks born early in that century. Laurence Fair enough, I was in a Romantic period mindset, and really thinking forward into the 19th century from maybe 1815 to 1880 or thereabouts, so it didn't occur to me to include that minor figure from the archaic past of the 18th century <G>. Still, if we want to include Ludwig in the survey, his last 16 sonatas include seven with overall key signatures of three or more sharps or flats. And three of those 16 are "easy" (sonatinas) so perhaps they should be omitted from the statistics. So Beethoven is certainly heading into the remoter keys in his 18th century output for piano. Fred (Chopin excepted). And Schumann, and Schubert and Liszt and Mendelssohn. Are there any other truly prominent early 19th century composers for keyboard? (18th century is an entirely different matter). Regards, Fred Sturm fssturm at unm.edu http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/FredSturm
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