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Bach's tuning discussion

🔗Neil Haverstick <STICK@USWEST.NET>

7/3/2001 12:43:41 PM

As I dearly love Bach's music, the recent discussion of his preferred
tuning (s) is, of course, of interest. But, what is of more interest to
me, are dynamic and profound versions of his music, regardless of a few
cents in tuning variation. As I have mentioned several times before,
guitarist Kazuhito Yamashita's recorded performances of Bach's violin
sonatas/partitas, are absolutely astonishing, both in terms of technical
command, and emotional/spiritual depth. He is playing in 12 eq, as far
as I can ascertain...I really don't think, in this case, that, if he had
played in Werck 3, or whatever, that the slight difference in tuning
would have added a whole lot more to the quality and depth of the
performance...maybe, but I doubt it. Actually, I could care less in this
case, as Yamashita, in my opinion, has set a very high standard of Bach
interpretation, that is unlikely to be surpassed, by any performer, on
any instrument, in any tuning, in any time period. I am sure that the
old Maestro would have thought very highly of Yamashita, and I also
think that Yamashita has probably come as close as humanly possible to
playing Bach's music in the original spirit of Bach...which is to say,
in a way that evokes awe and disbelief in most people that hear it. So,
what's a few cents here and there when a 12 eq version is about as close
to perfection as one is likely to ever get? Hstick
PS...also, as I mentioned once before, when Bach and the great lutenist
Weiss jammed, was one in 12 eq, and the other in Werck? What did it
sound like? Were the Maestros concerned about the tuning discrepancy?
Did Bach tune to 12 eq for those sessions? Was it a big deal?