What's the big deal?

[Susan Kline]

Dear Bob,

I think you touch on a very good point, which I have been meaning to bring
up. You say:

> Later the
>difference between the sweeter keys and the sourer ones was exploited
>musically as a form of tension, and as a palette of "colors." However, it was
>a separate issue, based on the harmonic language of each era. Chopin would
>certainly sound different on a piano which could magically adjust each chord
>to just intonation, just as he sounds different in ET; BUT the harmonic
>tension, while not as pungent, would remain for those who developed a
>sensitivity to harmonic excursions to key centers more distantly-related, in
>the terms of common-practice harmony.
                                        -- (Bob Davis)

Most of the talk about "distant keys" has been about how the tempering
produces different colors in them, as if that were the only musical effect
of modulation. I feel that the musical effect of "roughness" or "sourness"
is minor compared to the perceived change of center, and the distance of
that change (speaking in terms of functional harmony) from the tonic. 

In other words, it's not the scenery at the destination but the distance and
direction of the journey which counts the most.

(My few cents' worth ...)

Susan

Susan Kline
P.O. Box 1651
Philomath, OR 97370
skline@proaxis.com

"Only in a crazy world would jewels be worth more than tools."
			-- Ashleigh Brilliant