(careful, it is about temperaments)

[David Love]

I wanted to add one more thought.  When I talk with musicians who possess
perfect pitch, they all describe different keys as having different
characters, moods, feelings, colors whatever you choose to call it.  Many of
these musicians are not pianists and probably have no experience, or
possibly even knowledge, of various kinds of temperaments.  Many of the more
famous composers of the 18th and 19th century, in fact, had perfect pitch.
I would suggest that key selection had more to do with certain innate key
characteristics than temperament.  

David Love
davidlovepianos@comcast.net 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf
Of David Love
Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2006 2:29 PM
To: 'Pianotech'
Subject: RE: (careful, it is about temperaments)

I find these two points to be at odds and reflective of a tendency, in these
treatises, toward a sort of pianocentrism in explaining the choice of keys.
Of the 32 piano sonatas of Beethoven only 2 are in the key of C and most
fall in the 2, 3 and 4 sharps and flats category.  Only one piece is in 6
sharps and none are in either 5 flats or 5 sharps.  You would think that if
temperament were dictating choice of keys that there would be a greater
dispersion.  Interestingly, the width of the tonic major third in the keys
with 2, 3 and 4 sharps or flats (where most of the pieces are written) falls
very close to the width of the third in ET.  

The assumption is also that it was the nature of the sound of the "piano" or
like tempered instrument that guided compositional key choices.  It is well
known that many if not most of these composers did there work away from the
keyboard.  Mozart speaks at length about being guided by vocal music where
intervals are much closer to just than the expanded intervals of a
temperament.  Likewise, Beethoven seems to have thought of his piano music
in orchestral terms where the tempered scale again has little meaning.  Much
of Schuberts music was written without the benefit of a piano because he
couldn't afford one and are similarly orchestral in structure.  

It's quite easy to construct an after the fact interpretation of key
selection based on subjective viewpoints about contrasting sounds.  I just
don't think the evidence really supports the claims.  The selection of key,
I would suggest, was a response to WT's only in the sense that the self
limiting choices of keys with relatively few sharps and flats were an
attempt, consciously or not, to not drift too far from what ET eventually
offered.  I have no more hard evidence to support that claim but it is no
less arguable.  

And if we are going to use empirical evidence, while there are a few concert
level musicians who argue for the use of WT's for a musical and historically
accurate interpretation of 18th and 19th music, there are many more, if not
nearly all, who, not inclined to sacrifice musicality or historical
faithfulness, choose to play the music in ET.    

David Love
davidlovepianos@comcast.net 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf
Of A440A@aol.com
Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2006 8:37 AM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: Re: (careful, it is about temperaments)

However, Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn and otheres of their day 
certainly did not use the remote keys nearly as much as they did ones with
less 
dissonance.   
    Anybody care to offer an explanation of why composers chose the keys
that 
they did, if not differences in temperament?  (Rita Steblin's book should be

required reading for all tuners). 

Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
 
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