Non-ETs

[Phillip Ford]

>Jason Kantor writes:
>Another silly argument.

My specialty.

>  Mozart was acutely aware of "color" differences
>between different keys, and used these contrasts consciously.

I'm not sure how you're aware of what Mozart was acutely aware of, or of 
what he did either consciously or unconsciously, but I can believe that 
this statement is true.

>  It is the key
>color that Mozart worked with as part of his palette, which we cannot
>discern in ET and which can emerge in a WT.

I have no argument with this, silly or otherwise.

>  The period instruments, halls
>etc are incidental and rather trivial; the quality of the harmony is the
>essential.

That's rather sweeping.  Weren't you the one cautioning someone else about 
'declaiming like this'? There is a growing community of instrument makers 
and restorers, performers, orchestras, and patrons that consider these 
things anything but trivial.  Some of them would say that performing a 
Mozart concerto on a Steinway D is a joke, an offence, or heresy.  A Mozart 
concerto played by Seth Carlin on a Walter fortepiano with the Philharmonia 
Baroque in Herbst Theater is a completely different thing than the same 
concerto played on a Steinway D by Andre Watts with the New York 
Philharmonic at Lincoln Center.  The differences made by instruments, 
performers, orchestral size, and venue are so large as to render any 
differences in choice of temperament incidental or trivial, in my view.

>  It's not "experience what Mozart did" -- it's "experience the key
>color that Mozart did".

The original quote was:

'However, if one wants to hear what Mozart was hearing, you can't use ET.' 
- David Porritt

My interpretation of that was 'experience what Mozart did', not 'experience 
the key color that Mozart did'.

Perhaps I'm misinterpreting.

Phil Ford

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Phillip Ford" <fordpiano@earthlink.net>
>To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
>Sent: Monday, April 05, 2004 9:48 AM
>Subject: RE: Non-ETs
>
>
> > > > --- big snip ---
> > > >
> > > > Engineers (who are not always the most artistic lot) tend to
> > > > think that if a temperament can be constructed with a rational
> > > > number it must be right.  However, if one wants to hear what
> > > > Mozart was hearing you can't use ET.  Of course hearing what
> > > > Mozart heard might not be important to you, but if it
>is................
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > >...then one must play it only on the same instruments (or their exact
> > >replicas) Mozart played on. Anything else would just not be the same.
> > >
> > >Del
> >
> > And one should probably play said instrument in a rather smallish hall or
> > room having lots of wood and plaster.  Also, one might be advised to play
> > by candlelight and wear a frock coat and a powdered wig.
> >
> > There are reasons for non-ET temperaments.  But to say that you're going
>to
> > put an historical temperament on a Steinway D that's going to be played in
> > Carnegie Hall so that you can experience what Mozart did is a bit like
> > saying that you're going to put sails on the Queen Mary so that you can
> > experience what Columbus did when he crossed the Atlantic.
> >
> > Phil Ford