Young Well Temperament

[A440A@aol.com]

Greetings all, 
Jim wrote:
>>I decided to give
>>the Young Well Temperament another look see.  
>>These alterations were made to a regular equal temperament tuning based 
>>on SAT II FAC style.

    This is Jorgensen's mathematical explanation of how to get to the Young,
and it is what I did, though I didn't round off.( I paid for that .1 cent
capacity on the SAT, and I am dang sure gonna use it whenever I get the
chance.....(:)}})

>My tuning did not sound anywhere near as good as the recording of Ed's 
>tuning.  In my tuning, I could hear
>the decided changes in the G# 7th chord of measure 4 and in the F# maj.
>chord of measure 14 and in the B maj chord of the last 2 beats in measure
>15. I went back to the CD, and it still sounded so clean and nice. Is it
>possible that in the recording the busier 3rds just are not as prominent?

     Hmmm.  I don't know, but will listen with that in mind
Jim then says:
> Is it possible that my failure to hear these
>variations in the CD is due entirely to Ed's superior tuning, or was I so
>enthralled with the artistry of Enid Katahn that I was messmerized? I 
>just can't figure it out yet. Any suggestions?

      Well, gee,  I don't know about it being the tuning, (though as you all
can imagine,  I was being pretty particular about it for this project!), and
for it to even be considered as a possibility by Jim is a real
compliment,(shuffle-blush).  
       I think the question brings us to the real crux of the matter. 
( Hmm, <detects a faint whiff of soap>..)
     The artist is in charge of how the music sounds. The tuning is only a
resource.  Enid has tried to describe to me how she plays differently now, as
a result of becoming familiar with HT's,  but it is beyond me to fully
appreciate.  These are pieces that she had played for many years, but once
familiar with HT's, she began changing how she played them, making use of the
additional expression that is available from an irregular set of keys.  
     This even includes playing the pieces differently, even if the piano is
in ET!  She mentions that she now has a feel for why a composer would use the
key of Bmaj, or F#, etc. and correlates this to the interpretation.  THIS is
as close to the heart of artistry I have ever been.  She notices that Brahm's
music asks for a different treatment to key character than Beethoven or
Schubert's, but she still hears him working with it.  
     Enid mentions that when bringing out a particular line in the music, a
poorly voiced, or "hard-hammer"  piano forces her to push it to the forefront
with volume.  A good piano allows a slighter increase in volume to do the same
thing, because the additional brilliance that comes with a little more volume
gives the  melodic line sufficient identity to stand out without becoming
LOUD.  
      When you couple a good piano with a tuning that offers variety as the
composer knew it, and place it in the hands of an artist, a third dimension
can appear.  This dimension is the greater emotional involvement of the
audience, and has been my goal from the beginning.  I think, Jim, that the
difference you are hearing is Enid's artistry, not my ability to tune at a
"superior" level.
    Evoking emotional response from today's audience is difficult , the modern
world's social demands seem  to make  people resist emotional behavior; crying
or laughing in public is usually suppressed.  We need to feel secure to relax
and get emotional(some more than others), and this is where the tech can help.
The audience needs to feel secure if you want them to be a part of it, so
don't make the added dimension of key character a challenge, make it a
promise.  
 
     We like to preface our concerts with a short talk on temperament.  A
technical description which goes over the heads of most, and then, more
importantly, we make the point that the effects are not noticed by
intellectually trying to identify them.
     I recommend that they relax and let the music just present itself as an
tonal journey, (which it is), that will go from sweet harmony to crashing
dissonance, and back again.  It means something different to everybody, but we
all can go on the ride if we focus on the music.  This non-technical
information is the more important of the two............
      

Regards,
Ed Foote