21st century tonality

[Richard Moody]

Ed,
 I like your descriptions.  Now that you have included ET, welcome baaaaack
into the fold.  :)

You mentioned "tonality" being lost.  I have heard references to key color,
and "character of keys".  If I could say what  is color to me in a
temperament or tonality it would be

1 Meantone. 1/4 comma  pure thirds, wonderful to play around in the keys
until you get to Eb.

  2 Pythagorean.
        It cannot be ignored, you do not know what it is about until you
tune it and play in it.
        so little has been written.  Regarded as a "provencial" tuning, or
"primative"   Has         a "wolf" like Meantone has    I do not mean "the
same as".  A basic for studying                 temperaments.

3.  The Equal Beating one.
        I think this is Marpurg I  (as in eye or the letter i )   This is
because of ease of                 tuning. I like when the try to make it
easy for the tuner.

4   Werckmeister.   I wish more of him was translated.   This might be one
of the so called "Wells"  I wish Owen Jorgensen had taken claim for coining
t(his) term. Bon mot!!

5  ET.    Well what can I say.

6.  Hypermodern.  I am leaving this for the digital keyboards.   With
"tunable" midi who knows what might come up.  Perhaps a just intonation for
the keyboard for the first time in history? That will be truely 21st century
tonality. For pianos  there will be endeavors such as  Jim Coleman's  who
has explored the possibility of  pure fifths resulting from stretched
octaves.




----- Original Message -----
From: <A440A@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2000 1:59 PM
Subject: Re: 21st century tonality


> John asks:
> , but could you post the Six Temperements
> >for us?
>
> Greetings,
>      This cannot possibly be definitive, but covers the broadest
categories
> of unequal tunings.
> 1.  Silberman, Hawkes, or other modified meantone
> 2.  Werckmiester (there are several, take your pick)
> 3.  Kirnberger  (his III seems to be the most popular)
> 4.  Valotti/Young
> 5.  Victorian as per Jorgensen's suggestions
>        ( or one of Jim Coleman's series between 11 and 16
> 6.  ET
>
>     This is  an automatic topic for debate,  I post the above knowing
that.
> These temperaments may easily reflect my preferences more closely than
they
> do broad application to the literature, however, they do cover a
> representative range of  tuning inequality.
>     Now  the reasons:
> (setting up the target on my forehead)
>
> 1.  The meantone tuning is only restrictive to those that cannot bear
wolfish
> intervals, say 30 cent or wider thirds, so whether they are bug or feature
> depends on the listener.  Of more importance, to me, is the effect of so
many
> near pure thirds. Hearing this dramatic a division of the diesis is
important
> for the tuner's sense of perspective, and understanding the 1/4 comma
> Meantone makes a good basis for everything that followed.  Its legacy
proved
> durable.
>
> 2. Werckmiester's proposed temperament  follows a certain form.  His rules
> inre how intervals relate to one another set the general pattern of well
> tempering, and could easily have been a major style of temperament during
> Bach's early youth.   So, maybe  it was the pattern upon which Bach formed
> his musical perspective?.....actually, that is pure troll,  but it could
have
> happened.
>
> 3.  Kirnberger took a step back from Werckmiester in his number III.  His
C-E
> third is a Just third, which causes the first four fifths to be in, yep,
you
> guessed it,  1/4 comma meantone.  His temperaments are dramatic, offering
> great contrast between the purest thirds and the most highly tempered
ones.
>
> 4.  Vallotti/Young  for their symmetry.  The evenness of the steps between
> keys, and the minimization of the tempering to one key with a 21.7 cent
tonic
> third make it a useful introductory tuning for the pianist that plays only
> Chopin and before.   It has also proven attractive to several songwriters
> here, who find it very colorful, so its utility is not yet completely
> defined!  It is a clean  sounding tuning and quite often pianists know
there
> is something different, but can't quite locate where the difference lies.
>
> 5.  The Victorian styles,  ala Jorgensen and Coleman, are valuable tools
for
> the technicans working to pry their customers off the supposed "safety" of
> equal temperament.  The resulting clarity in pedaling is usually enough to
> win them over,  and within a few days, they are hooked.   It is easy to
> explain that this was once regarded as ET, it just has a slight "organic"
> twist to reflect a more musically oriented allotment of the dissonance.
If
> the earlier WT's are like oil colors, the Victorian style would be more
like
> watercolor or pastels.
>
> 6.  ET has a sound of its own. There is nothing else like it.  It can
create
> more musical intensity, in more places, than virtually anything else.  My
> first impression of it, after a weekend of well temperament, was how buzzy
> and active it felt.
>     Aside from its inherent musical nature,  it is still often the most
> economical tuning to use in situations involving a wide group of
musicians.
> Its universal acceptance is at once its strongest and weakest point but I
> consider it a necessity in the world of commercial piano work.
>
> It would be good to hear from other temperament users, who surely would
have
> a different set of priorities.  > Regards,
> Ed Foote RPT