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Temperament lectures

🔗A440A <A440A@...>

3/7/1998 2:33:47 AM
Gordon writes:
<and to make use of the Baldwin Pianovelle 2500.
I intended to demonstrate the following further temperaments:
(# is the Chapter from Jorgensen's book 'Tuning')
41 J.J. Rousseau's Temperament
47 Handel Well Temperament
56 D'Alembert Modified Meantone
58 Equal Beating D'Alembert Well Temperament
70 The Transposed Vallotti Well Temperament
76 The One Half syntonic Comma Temperament by Kirnberger ca 1771
83 William Hawkings Improved Modified Meantone Temperament of 1807
>My hope is to use these and I have come up with some figures using Owen
>Jorgensen's text.
>All suggestions welcome.

Greetings,
As one who has been wearing out grindstones on my nose with this, I have a
suggestion. Simplify ! The glazed-eye factor goes up dramatically when you
get more than two or three temperaments in the same place at the same time
with the noviate audience.
While these tunings are interesting, identifiable, and familiar to many
tuners and theorists, exposure to this much complicated variety is going to
submerge your listeners after two or three changes. I think it will set them
a-floundering in a sea of unfamiliar contrasts, wild-eyed and crying for Cmaj
to come take them home.............
You may want to consider trying to illustrate Meantone, Well, and Equal
Temp. as a historical progression, and then concentrate on the subsets of each
as your audience grasps the concepts. Opening with some shock value is good.
The wolves of 1/4 comma are always a big hit with audiences, I open the
gates at my lectures by retuning two thirds in an octave. Audiences listen
real hard while I turn the pins down, and by the time I near Just, the place
is always real quiet. At that moment, I let them hear two just 3rds, and then
the wolf. This always gets a big laugh, which is a signal that some emotional
connection is taking place. There is no question that the unexpected
dissonance has an effect, and given the perishable nature of a listeners
attention, you want to create this emotional link between the audience and
tempering as quickly as possible. Once forged, you must take care not to go
too fast or it will break. It is like catching 50 lb. fish with 6 lb. line.
After recognizing the wolf, and with everyone usually feeling astute,
acute, and
sensitized, you can delve into the graduations of tempering that was such an
art form of the well-tempered era. I really like the Prinz,(which is why we
used it on the temperament CD), as it has good contrast, and nobody gets hurt
worse than a comma.
You will be doing well if you can get them to grasp the concept of unequal
tonality and actually hear it well enough to appreciate what it is doing to
the music. Owen has several lectures and the pieces to go with them. You may
want to write to him.
Good luck, I would be really interested in how it goes.
Regards,
Ed Foote