Binchois drift rift

Dear Margo,

Sorry it has taken a bit to get back to you on this. There are several
different positions regarding the aesthetics of drift in the context of
historically appropriate intonation.

Re a theory for Binchois: 15 years ago, I had the opportunity to lead an all
-boys trio in music of Binchois and Palestrina. We did it in just
intonation, at a time when no one could verify the tuning accuracy.

When the fellows sang it right (and they used to get so nervous, being of
high school age) there was a drift that we would notice because the bass
would be starting the verse a "bit" lower each time we did a stanza. There
were many. This meant that we had to choose the correct tessitura with this
phenomenon in mind, in order to anticipate the drift.

At Wagner College in Staten Island, our trio - the Camp Rising Sun Trio (made
up of former campers of mine) won first prize in a New York megalopolis high
school ages. I remember it was long program...and we won first prize.

No one was concerned about drift and no one noticed it. The chairman of the
music department, following the award reception, refused to listen to any
explanations I offered as to why they like what we did so much. Tisk task.
It was just beautiful, and that was it.

Now, would a room of more trained individuals have noticed, or one with
perfect pitch? Who cares? When I do the Microtona Bach show, there are
always the unfortunates who call in to the show that I am wrong about what
key is being heard. They are unaware of the 20th century's early music
convention of A=415. These poor individuals can't get past the lower pitch
frequency in order to hear the intervalic specialness of the different keys,
which I point out to the greater majority of listeners.

My point on Benedetti is he is a single individual possibly pointing out an
alternative to drift, but in no way indicating that it wasn't widely
accepted. Now from my perspective, I find it more interesting and I find
that it is built in to the compositions by the works I have explored through
performance.

Gesualdo, well, I have performed him in extended meantone. It seems quite
coincidental that I will be opening for a Gesualdo ensemble in London on
March 22nd. I sure hope to discuss intonation with them.

Best, Johnny Reinhard