Re: [tuning] Re: Well tempered Beethoven, Bach,(was enharmonic)

There seems to me to be several different perspectives needing representation
in this discussion. My angle is from a performance perspective, from a
player's point of view.

What would Miles Davis sound like in true 12-tET, or Louis Armstrong? Would
it even represent the music the composers imagined? It's hard enough to pop
musicians to write their music down on paper, what if one played ONLY what
was on the page...in strict ET? It would be some ratio this side of crap,
most likely. We've been spoiled by what the music actually sounds like when
authentically performed, that the reversion from paper back to sound would be
seriously impacted. And we would be justifiably upset.

On the basis of research leading me to believe that J.S. Bach tuned his
corpus of works to Werckmeister's Chromatic Temperament, I believe I have a
trust in understanding profound gestures by the composer, never before
present (n ET performances). Contrasts between Werckmeister's tuning and ET
performances always favor Werckmeister based on heaps of anecdotal evidence
(including a NYC annual radio broadcast).

My angle is that J.S. Bach speaks in a different dimension that is otherwise
perceived thanks to its specific microtonal measurement.

Now, would Beethoven be revealed in a manner similar to the way J.S. Bach is
revealed in Werckmesiter well-temperament? The precision of Werckmeister's
monochord's would inevitably break down after Bach's death into a practical
continuum of possibilities. It's the "way" of music. Other directions,
including subsemitonium were long underway as well.

Johann Mattheson is another interesting music personality. He went deaf and
wrote 88 books, many dealing with well-temperament, offering an early list of
all keys and sentiment descriptions. Even in his deafness, he would argue
for a variety of keys.

Johnny Reinhard

Afmmjr@aol.com wrote:

> On the basis of research leading me to believe that J.S. Bach tuned his
> corpus of works to Werckmeister's Chromatic Temperament,

Is that the same thing as Werkmeister III? Or something different?
And if so, what is the difference?

--
* D a v i d B e a r d s l e y
* 49/32 R a d i o "all microtonal, all the time"
* http://www.virtulink.com/immp/lookhere.htm

In a message dated 1/14/01 3:27:25 PM Eastern Standard Time,
xouoxno@virtulink.com writes:

> Is that the same thing as Werkmeister III? Or something different?
> And if so, what is the difference?

Herr Werckmeister only had a single chromatic temperament. It has been
numbered "III" most often, though Murray Barbour called it "I" because ahead
of it was just intonation and subsemitonium meantone (split-key chromatic).
Werckmeister IV, V, and VI are diatonic variants, only.

Since there is only a single fully chromatic (all-24-keys) temperament
described by Werckmeister, it may be best to simply refer to it as
"Werckmeister's chromatic temperament."

Johnny Reinhard