I'm listening to the Pathetique sonata in the Prinz temerament on Ed's first temperament CD. I'm intrigued, but a little confused, by the temperament. I'd like to be able to categorize a chord as either "pure" or "not pure", but it doesn't work out that way with the Prinz (and I guess with any Well temperament). For example, the key of C has a pure tonic-third interval, but the fifth is tempered. And the key of Ab has the most tempered tonic-third interval, but a pure tonic-fifth interval. So, if you take the first measure of the second movement, where the mood is somewhat calm, you're in the key of Ab. The "accompaniment" part has the root and fifth, which is pure-sounding. But the melody in the right hand is the note C, which brings out the highly tempered tonic-third interval. So I don't know what to make of it. I guess the "accompaniment" has a calm sound to it, but the melody has an interesting flavor to it that you wouldn't get if the third were tuned just. I wouldn't quite use the word "tension" here, but I think the tempered third makes the melody stand out. Maybe you could say that the tempered melody note subtly conveys the feeling that something's a-brewin', sort of like you know something bad is going to happen in a movie before it happens. It's like a calm before a storm. Yeah, that's it. Calm before a storm. Or like when a dog is completely relaxed and lying down, but you know he's going to do something in a minute. You know he sees that other dog a little ways away, but he hasn't decided to do anything about it quite yet. Anyway, I focus on this one measure because the piece comes back to this chord since it's the key of the movement. If there's a question in any of this, it's whether people have other (or similar) ways of looking at it. I'm trying to figure out the difference between a key with a pure third and a tempered fifth and a key with a tempered third but a pure fifth. For example, which one is calmer-sounding? I guess the sound that is conveyed depends how the chord is voiced in the music. In the case I mentioned, had there been a C (the third) in the accompaniment, it might have affected the calm sound that I heard. That case appears later on in the piece. Any more ideas people want to share? Charles
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