Steve wrote as quoted from below >But until you hear the > Goldberg Variations or the WTC of JS Bach in Werckmeister III, played on > a fine harpsichord, you haven't heard everything ol' JS was trying to tell > us. Yes and I wish JS Bach had told us how to TUNE the WTC. if Well Tempered meant so much. >There really was a reason Ludwig picked C# minor for the > "Moonlight". Just a kwibble, how long does it stay in C# minor? and/or where does it go to after that? > And there's room for all of us. At the risk of getting > preachy, Duke Ellington said it well: "If it sounds good, it is good." > Just my opinion.. > Steve ;-) mine too Richard Soundgood ---------- > From: Steve Pearson <SPearson@yamaha.com> > To: pianotech@ptg.org > Subject: "Historical Mindset" -Reply > Date: Wednesday, January 21, 1998 5:24 PM > > There are few out there who appreciate a nice historical tuning better > than I, but I think it is a stretch to say that there is something haywire with > us as techs, and/or musicians if we don't hear the subtleties. I have > tuned countless harpsichords for all manner of groups, from "period" > instruments, to the standard chamber ensembles. I tend to use a tuning > appropriate to the period and "aimed" at the keys of the music where > appropriate. Never had a complaint, and usually got compliments on the > richness of the sound of the instrument, but nobody has ever recognized > that the difference was in the tuning until I mentioned it. As listeners, we > hear the music one way, as tech / tuners, we listen differently. > Toulouse-Lautrec, when asked what he saw when he looked at a > tomato, replied, "That depends on whether I am going to paint it or eat it!" > To be sure, we lost something in ET when C# minor sounds just like C > minor a half step higher, but we also gained in tonal flexibility and > consistency. Everything comes at a price. Is the music "better" > performed in a historical tuning? If I had to live with one tuning all the time, > for Bach, Prokofief, Mozart, Chopin, Szymanovsky, Billy Joel, Thelonius > Monk, I think I would be inclined to pass on the charms of the historical > tunings, for the flexibility and consistency of ET. But until you hear the > Goldberg Variations or the WTC of JS Bach in Werckmeister III, played on > a fine harpsichord, you haven't heard everything ol' JS was trying to tell > us. There really was a reason Ludwig picked C# minor for the > "Moonlight". And there's room for all of us. At the risk of getting > preachy, Duke Ellington said it well: "If it sounds good, it is good." > Just my opinion.. > Steve ;-)
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