Re: [tuning] Mozart, was Re: Reply to John deLaubenfels

From: Judith Conrad <jconrad@shell1.tiac.net>
> Correct -- in fact there is an underground heresy in the early music
> mobvement (one I in fact believe) to the the effect that Mozart actually
> sounds quite good in meantone tuning. It's at least a good thing to know
> that if you are giving a mixed program and don't have time to retune in
> the middle you can play 16th and 17th century music PLUS Mozart on the
> same keyboard, with maybe readjusting the g#'s, but if you want to play
> the same early stuff with Bach or Telemann or Haydn you might be in
> trouble.
>
> Judy

It's neither underground nor heretical. Some form of meantone was standard
in Vienna throughout Mozart's career, with Kirnberger's writings introducing
alternatives only in the late 1770's, possibly through the coincidence that
Baron von Swieten, a patron of Mozart and both patron and collaborator of
Haydn, served as Austrian embassador in Berlin, where von Swieten became
familiar with Kirnberger. T�rk (1787) writes from Saxony of Kirnberger's
tuning that it was "not yet generally used" but was indeed "the contemporary
tuning" -- it was, so to speak, the coming thing from Northern Germany, but
probably too late for Mozart.

For just one example of how deeply meantone habits are mapped into Mozart's
tonal practice, consider that he used only one minor key as tonic in his
symphonies: meantone's optimal g minor. He was, of course, court organist
in Salzburg, where he probably worked in sixth-comma meantone. On the other
hand, late Haydn definitely takes advantage of the newly available key
ranges in the circular temperaments (and Haydn's practice in this regard
certainly influenced Beethoven). Check out Herbert Kelletat _Zur
musikalishen Temperatur, Band II. Wiener Klassik_.

Daniel Wolf:
> Baron von Swieten, a patron of Mozart and both patron and collaborator of

Baron van Swieten, he was Dutch.

Manuel

From: <MANUEL.OP.DE.COUL@EZH.NL>

>
> Daniel Wolf:
> > Baron von Swieten, a patron of Mozart and both patron and collaborator
of
>
> Baron van Swieten, he was Dutch.
>
> Manuel
>

Sorry -- my new email program thought it was correcting a mistake in German!

Van Swieten was indeed born in Leiden, but came to Vienna at the age of 12.
It was as a citizen of Austria that he served as both a diplomat to Berlin
(where he _probably_ studied with Kirnberger and Marpurg) and laster as
director of the court library. He was instrumental in integrating music of
northern German and English origins, especially J.S. Bach and H�ndel, into
the stylistic tastes of the Viennese court and society.