temperament

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

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In a message dated 11/20/00 7:03:56 AM Central Standard Time, A440A@AOL.COM
 writes:
> 
>   <<  I think Bach wrote this as he did to display the usage of the highly 
> tempered key of C#.  The alternating notes of the harmony don't perceptibly 
> "beat",  they are too fast and never struck together.  
>     Perhaps an easier excercise would be to play the prelude in C in the 
> key 
> of C# on a well tempered piano.  This will show how bad the "wrong" key 
> will 
> sound.  In ET there will be no difference, but in a Werckmeister or 
> something 
> like it,  the C prelude will sound very poor in the key of C#. >>

Owen Jorgensen often used this very same example in his lectures.  Many 
pianists are able to transpose literature at will.  When the first prelude in 
C is played on a WT in C#, it sounds strained and the harmony is harsh.  When 
the prelude in C# is played in C, it sounds dull and lifeless.

These issues are very elementary yet it seems that few people know about 
them.  Composers chose a key to write in for a *reason*, they didn't just 
decide on the basis of pitch or for some vague unexplainable intuition or at 
random.  You can have the same experience with just about any popular music 
too.  Try playing The Music Box Dancer in a WT in the key it was written, C.  
Then try it in C#.  You'll get the same inappropriate effect.  If however, 
you went up another half step to D or down from C a full step to Bb, the 
piece will sound just fine.

Try Rodgers & Hammerstein's "If I loved you" from Carousel in the proper key 
of Db in a mild WT such as a Victorian or even Thomas Young.  You'll get lots 
of singing tone from the arpeggios (broken chords) and wide 10th and 17th 
intervals.  The melodic line carries well with the larger 2nds and 3rds and 
high leading tones.  Transpose it down to C and the piece sounds dead and 
dull.

Once again, ET negates all of these distinctions and provides only one 
neutral sound which in itself is inappropriate if only slightly so.  This is 
the reason I never choose to tune it.  I know of no music whatsoever that 
requires no distinction from one key to the next and at the same time 
provides inappropriate sounding harmony to virtually everything.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin

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