Bach's Tuning

To follow up on my last posting: Anyone who has ever been to Thuringia
where the Bachs's stem from will notice that there is no "equal" anything
to be seen. Architecture in the area suggests an aesthetic of
well-temperament.

Secondly, Andreas Werckmeister did not merely "list" well-temperaments,
he focused on what we now call "Werckmeister III." This tuning was in
practice long before it was catalogued by Mr. Werckmeister. Werckmeister
I is simple just intonation and Werckmeister II is quarter-comma
meantone. I own an unpublished English translation of Musicalische
Temperatur (1691) made by Elizabeth Hehr and given to me by Mark
Lindley. The bulk of his writing is on III - which displaces four
quarter-comma flattened fifths to include C-G, G-D, D-A, and B-F# -
leaving all other fiths pure (3/2). Contrastingly, Werckmeister IV, V,
and VI only receive a page or two apiece.

Thirdly, I believe that the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier was
as evidenced by Barnes illustrative of key intervallic diversity. Though
a second book would be moot if not to emphasize the homogeneity of 24
identical keys in contrast. A composer picked a key accordingly, some to
mirror meantone preferences, some to mirror equal temperament realities.

For eight years I have presented a Microtonal Bach radio show every
Christmas Day for 4 hours on WKCR-FM Columbia University in New York
City. It is part of a week-long all-Bach series of broadcasts.
The music staples include: Ton Koopman's Brandenburg Concerti in
Werckmeister III with the Amsterdam Chamber Orchestra, various
performances of Bach's early work The Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue by Igor
Kipnis and others (e.g. Eugenia Earle) in Werckmeister III, and the
Coffee Cantata in quarter comma meantone, among others. There is a grand
difference in this music...but it is subtle for many other listeners. For
many others, they listen in every year, regularly.

For example, The Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D minor (which is the
most consonant minor key in Werckmeister III) is much more "chromatic" in
well-temperament. Its many diminished 7th chords which act as pivot
chords for modulation contain different sizes of minor thirds, and so
their inversions take on new meaning. And the fugue which is semitonal
is striking with its big-small semitone alternations.

Should we really disregard J.P. Kirnberger's assertion that to change the
key of a composition into a distantly related key is to damage said
piece? Keep in mind that Kirnberger did more to promote J.S. Bach than
any of his kids. It is thanks to Bach's student Kirnberger that the
world even has the Brandenburg Concerti. Yale University Press
publishes his *Art of Strict Musical Composition*, designed to present J.S.
Bach's essential theories, as well as his own.

Manuel, once again, could you post this to the harpsichord list. Thank you.

Johnny Reinhard
Director
American Festival of Microtonal Music
318 East 70th Street, Suite 5FW
New York, New York 10021 USA
(212)517-3550/fax (212) 517-5495
reinhard@styx.ios.com


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That sounds like fun.

There is a technical consideration to work through carefully though:
Fretless plucked strings other than the bass (since its strings are very heavy)
tend to be somewhat muffled and have very short transients because of friction
with the flesh of fingers. That is not necessarily bad of course, but it would
undoubtedly affect how you would approach the musical styles you render on those
instruments. Bowed strings of course don't have to worry about his because
you're continuously imparting energy to the string.

You suggested a fretless banjo. Like the Turkish one Ivor had, that would
probably get around the muffling concern handily. It could become yet more
percussive though, since the banjo is already more percussive from having an
extremely resonant top (a drum head) that dissipates the energy of the pluck
very rapidly - in a rapid, loud, short burst.

That does bring to mind an interesting thought: Has anybody experimented
with attempting to get a fretted-like sound from a fretless instrument by
playing them with, essentially, thimbles on the left hand?


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