Ed Foote's CD

Ed Foote's CD also just arrived today and I listened to it right
away.... It was incredibly striking... particularly the first two
pieces, the Beethoven "Pathetique" and "Op. 14 #1" piano sonatas in
the "Prinz" tuning. Something "spooky" is going on right away...

Actually, part of the charm is the fact that the pieces on his album
are SO familiar. Virtually all of us who are pianists have played
them all at one time or another... We've also heard OTHER people
play these time and time and time and time tasdfjaeoirghojf and time
again, so it's refreshing to listen to them in a different way!

The Young tunings (That's Thomas, of course, not La Monte) are also
quite distinguishable, although not as much so from 12-tET as the
Prinz. Ed explains why in his program notes...

However, I, personally, hear the difference in mid-to-upper register
chords for whatever reason (??) and sometimes at unexpected times...
I suppose it's the particular chord that's ventured upon...

Striking, also, were the big famous "thump, thump, thump, thump"
chords of the Waldstein... I heard a more "harmonious" in terms of
5th-partial harmonics, sound in this chord than usual... Would that
make sense (??) Anyway, that was quite striking, as well as the
diminished seventh chords at the very end of the piece. The Young
temperament is extremely obvious there...

Say, does anybody know a bit about this piece? I was trying to find
some more info on the Web... but I was wondering about the ending.
At the very end, Beethoven has some chords that sound vaguely like a
"hunting horn." Was he making some kind of bad pun on the "Wald" of
"Waldstein??" Could this be possible?? Does anybody know the
commissioning history of this piece??

Anyway, anybody at all interested in tuning (a couple around here, I
would venture) should get ahold of this CD. It makes quite an
impact... at least it did for me...

_______ _____ ____ _
Joseph Pehrson

I wrote stuff and John ask questions:

>

>>Kirnberger? The notes say that "Prinz" is used for the first two

sonatas, and Young for the second two. Is Prinz essentially the same

as Kirnberger?

Yes, these tunings have a pure C-E and three full comma thirds across the
top of the circle of fifths. In the dissonance, they resemble the
Werckmeister, but the Just third at the bottom of the circle requires a
faster climb into the "color" for the Kirnberger/Prinz/Neidhardt form of the
tuning.

> In the case of Young, at least, Kyle Gann makes the

comment that the difference between it and 12-tET is most apparent to

the performer. Do you agree?<<

Yes, the performer's grasp it more quickly, saying it feels like "power
steering". Audiences get a taste for well temperament more quickly with the
stronger tunings, if they don't get scared off by the alien nature of a 21
cent third.

John again,
>>I meant to mention that: "WARNING: this CD contains pure intervals which

may be habit forming!" ;->

Some people regard this a facetious, however, it is there for a serious
reason,(just so I can say ITYS)

Inre the "Menage a Mozart" that we are including on our next one:
>>I like the fact that you're including three versions for comparison. Of

course, there will also be subtle differences in the three performances,

difficult or impossible to control in the organic/acoustic world.

The difference betwee the Meantone and well tempered versions are great
enough that any difference in play is almost moot. Enid Katahn has a lot of
control, (which is required when one tries to play Mozart with wolves
howling.....)

>>y own preferences are highly adaptive by now, and that's

unlikely to change, I fear. Tell me, Ed: what are your thoughts on

the possibility of making a grand piano real-time adaptive, given

unlimited resources? I realize there are serious problems, beyond the

mechanics of turning the tuning pin: the string would have to slip over

the bridge and the other terminating rail <<

I think a more plausible approach would be to mimic the pedal steel
guitar(the king of all musical instruments!). It would create a piano that
weighs several tons, and would have at least 30-40 pedals,(driven by a
computer-driven set of servos.)
If I know musicians, there would be a number of them that would want the
pedals to also be foot-accessible,too, so that they could manually adapt
pitch on the fly,also.
Regards,
Ed Foote

Ed Foote wrote,

<<Yes, the performer's grasp it more quickly, saying it feels like
"power steering".>>

Ha, what an interesting description!

--Dan Stearns