Charles writes: << Anyway, I'm curious if anyone has a list of favorite piano pieces to play for various temperaments. I'm sure Ed Foote must have a repertoir that he would use for demonstrating temperaments. >> Greetings, There are any number of pieces that demonstrate one or another aspect of temperament. Just as George Gershwin's music can demo exactly why ET sounds so good, Bach's will show a Werckmeister to good effect. In general terms, I have tried to use music that contains a lot of vertical harmony to demo the temperaments in my classes. The two CD's that we have out,(one, "6 Degrees of Tonality" is absolutely rocketing up the Amazon.com sales rankings as a result of Isacoff's misleading book "Temperament"), cover much of what I thought sounded good. The opening of the "Moonlight" sonata on the first one, and Beethoven's op 110 on the second are very strong examples. Haydn's sonata in Eb in a Kirnberger is also another world of sound. After hearing the pianist in St. Louis play Clara Schumann's "Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann", I have been making plans to produce our third recording as "Well Tempered Clara". Her use of harmony is incredible, delicate, and imho, absolutely dependant on key color to create the maximum expression of emotional image. We will see. regards, Ed Foote RPT
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