Israel writes: << As for temperament - whether or not Well temperaments were in use in the classical era - in today's musical context it would not be a very useful device to further the composer's vision, since it is not part of the musical vocabulary of most musicians and audiences. As has been extensively written here, most pianists cannot tell the difference, and neither can audiences. << Greetings, I don't know what kind of audiences are being referred to, but the audiences around here are most definitely affected by the change. Upon hearing the Beethoven Concerto III on a Young temperament, the dean of our school told me, after the performance, that he had never heard the piano sound so good, ( a sentiment voiced by numerous people in the lobby). I had not told anybody anything about the change, (especially the youth orchesta behind the artist). Also, our conductor mentioned that he had never heard his kids play so well in tune as they did when I tuned the piano. (I didn't confuse him with the facts, either). When I informed the dean that the tuning was a well-temperament, he said, "What does that mean?" I explained a little bit, and he said, "Well, I don't fully understand that, but I know what I just heard, and it was stunning!". >>Besides, the size of todays concert venues and the tuning distortions required by the inharmonicity of the modern piano do tend to obscure the subtleties of Historical tunings to all but the well trained ears of Ed Foote and others like him (or should I say us..) << My experience differs. Ears around here are responding to the change quite readily. >>So playing Mozart on a Steinway D in Avery Fisher Hall in Valotti/Young is probably not the most effective expressive device in today's musical culture to fulfill a composer's "intent". If the composers intent was to create a harmonic texture with the various characters of the keys, then there is no way to do that but by temperament. >>Today's audiences respond to expressive devices based on dynamics and emphasis - not to subtleties of tuning. Which could be one more reason why those performers who might have been aware of the temperament issue simply did not bother with it. In today's musical culture HT is definitely an acquired taste (or listening skill?)...<< Again, I have now seen, for the last 13 years, many first-time listeners of WT express the feeling that there was something more engaging about the sound, even when they didn't know what it was. The psycho-emotional effects in response to varying degrees of consonance are involuntary, whether the listener is acclimated or not. >>Which is not to say that performers who feel that HT enhances their understanding of the music and aids the performance value should not work with it. Just that in the context of public performance it has little relevance to today's musical culture. >> Ah, that seems so sadly defeatist. One performer that I work with has mentioned that now, with her knowledge of the temperament differnces, she plays differently, even on the usual ET she finds on the road. She mentioned that now, when the modulation goes to a key like F#, she plays the music more tensely, in effect, "faking" the well-tempered sound. She, and others, have described the WT as "power-steering" which makes the expressiveness of the music so much easier to create. It isn't my job to tell people, and pianists, what they should be hearing, but rather, to dispel the ignorance concerning temperament. After that, the music does all the heavy lifting. Some are totally impervious to the change, while others are profoundly affected. Regards, Ed Foote RPT http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
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