Beethoven and ET

Greetings,
Inre LVB and his use of the well temperaments, Joesph writes:
<< In other words, he was not writing in a tuning system as
some kind of "compromise" (say toward JI sonorities, or whatever)
but was just writing with the system he had at his "fingertips" so to
speak...<<

From what I have gathered, the various levels of dissonance in a WT were
viewed as the basic tools of composition. I have labelled this "The Harmonic
Toolbox" in my first liner notes,(ok, so I'm groping for the immortality of
coinage,there).
There is much to recommend the use of the well temperament as a palette
of various colors. I point to the WTC, in which Bach demonstrates various
keys' harmonic assests, ie, the Prelude in C places the melodic line on the
overtones of the harmony in a very dulcet manner, or that the key of C#
requires a different character of composition to turn its dissonant nature to
good use. ( I use these two keys as example-extremis; the pieces in the
"middle" keys can be played in several of the middle key signaures without
changing their basic harmonic nature, and in fact, the record indicates that
Bach did transpose them around a little.
OTOH, there are many ways for the "energetic" nature of a full comma
third to be used and to be musically effective, and the style evidenced in
the C# Prelude was just one of them. Since we may view the WTC 1 as not
only a monumental work, but also a basic primer, perhaps Bach considered this
the most characteristic approach to C#. I don't have the musical
underpinnings to discuss this much deeper, but I bet we have some list
members that could take us further into the field, (I LOVE getting out in the
tall weeds!)

> Also, in the question of dissonance, it is not that great a
leap from the 1/6 comma meantones to the Kirnberger's and
Werckmeister's tunings, especially on the lower tension instruments
of his day. Because a 1/6 comma tuning will provide for 8 keys with 6.4
cent wide tonic thirds and the highest four keys ( B, F#, C# and G#)
with tonic thirds of 28 cents, the line of demarcation is not so
clearly drawn. A Werckmeister has three thirds out there at 21 cents.

Joseph again,
I'm assuming, then, that what you're saying is that at that point in
time they were actually using 1/6 comma meantone, rather than 1/4
comma... That's pretty crucial to the further development of "well
temperaments," therefore, yes??<<

At any given point in time, there would have been a huge variety of
tunings in any area. Standardization, as we came to know it in the ET
dominated 20th century, was non-existant in the period between 1690-1850.
The gradual departure from meantone depended on the tuners themselves,
and they were not a separate trade until the mid 1800's. Much keyboard tuning
was done by choirmasters, teachers, instrument builders and owners, thus the
plethorea of published "self-instructions" for tuning that constitute a large
part of our historical research. The Montal instructions for ET of 1834 came
in his booklet,"How to tune your own Piano"! From this, we may infer that
tunings were in a state of flux, with the organ's seemingly the last to
change,(they were the most expensive to change tunings, and were probably
controlled by "committee", thus slowing the acceptance of change).
So, as composers heard the "new" music and began seeking the freedom
allowed by banished wolves, trading the meantone purity for modulatory
freedom was, indeed, becoming worth the extra effort required. While it
appears that the transition to well temperaments was in response to the need
of modulation, the evolution from 1/4 to 1/6 meantone was done to improve the
fifths, not necessarily to increase the tonal palette's range. Continuing on
with this assumption, then we might expect the listening audience to have
become accustomed to the more tempered thirds that resulted in the later
meantones, paving the way for acceptance of Werckmeister's ideas. Then, it
was on to the fin-de-sicle as well. (getting to the point of elastic logic
there, I know, but I think it is worth at least considering)

>>So what do you do regarding the use of PIANOS in your historical
recordings? I guess you mentioned that your recent release was on a
MODERN grand. Would this be the best way to listen to Beethoven, or
would it even be MORE interesting to find a piano from that era?..>>

Ah, "Why?. The original style of instrument will best demonstrate the
original sound,yes. However, there are so few of them or their reproductions
available, that the vast majority of this music is played, today, on the
modern instrument. I made the decision to push for forward movement by
combining the keyboard du jour with the colors of the past, since there are
more instruments around to which this concept can be applied. There are
recordings of fortepianos in temperaments, but they seem to be regarded as
curiosities. We are looking for a large-scale awakening,and for that, felt
that the familiar axe should be the one that best illuminates the new
approach to sharpening. (we may fall flat, but ya gotta swing for the fences,
no?)
I suppose that the musical answer to the above question is best expressed
by "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with". That
means approaching it from the "Stein" way.
Regards,
Ed Foote
Nashville, Tn.

Ed Foote wrote,

>While it
>appears that the transition to well temperaments was in response to the
need
>of modulation, the evolution from 1/4 to 1/6 meantone was done to improve
the
>fifths, not necessarily to increase the tonal palette's range.

Though I would agree that 1/6-comma meantone doesn't really increase the
modulatory range of a 12-tone instrument over that of 1/4-comma meantone, I
doubt that its evolution came about from a desire to improve the fifths. The
full triad was the basic sonority in the early Renaissance, when 1/4-comma
and 2/7-comma meantone temperament were used, as it was in the later Baroque
when 1/6-comma meantone was in vogue. The change, I believe, had to do with
the invention of tonality (as we know it today) in the Baroque era; tonality
is predicated on the "pointing" action of the minor seconds in the diatonic
scale; and 1/6-comma meantone makes the minor seconds more "pointy" than
they are in 1/4- or 2/7-comma meantone.

>Continuing on
>with this assumption, then we might expect the listening audience to have
>become accustomed to the more tempered thirds that resulted in the later
>meantones, paving the way for acceptance of Werckmeister's ideas.

Yes -- I believe some of the historical evolution of aesthetic impressions
as documented by Jorgenson lends plausibility to this idea.