Chopin with his wrench

Hi Aaron
I wasn't able to get chopin or lou to answer my e-mails so i am sorry i cannot tell you more. It seems when he played the
Barcarolle is in F-sharp major he could have just tuned it to that key. There is no reason to think that tuning practice were uniform throughtout europe. It is hard to guess what was going on in poland and maybe he liked all those 'weird' intervals. i know that the 'devil's interval' has been moved from the tritone to the 40/27 and the 27/20 and like intervals, but maybe know one told the audience and everybody had a great time in the ol parlor. I myself wouldn't want to give them up for anything.

>
> From: "akjmicro" <akj@rcn.com>
>
>
> --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, kraig grady <kraiggrady@a...> wrote:
> > Lou Harrison told me he had a source that said Chopin tuned his own piano. in
> 612 ET. no just kidding,
> > No, to meantone which if you especially look at his starting points makes
> >sense.
>
> Hmm...It seems that it would have to be something like 1/8 comma at least, no?
>
> I mean, the Barcarolle is in F-sharp major. 1/4 comma meantone would make that
> sound like total shit! Chopin is so harmonically adventurous, too, well beyond the
> constraints of 5-limit triadic writing. Historically, it doesn't ring true either. He would
> most likely be using any of the post-Bach well-temperaments if he were anything
> like his contemporaries!
>
> I find this anecdote hard to believe. You surely doon't mean 1/4 comma meantone
> anyway...Can you follow up with more?
>
> All the Best,
> Aaron.
>
>
>
>
>

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM WED 8-9PM PST

hi kraig,

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, kraig grady <kraiggrady@a...> wrote:

> Hi Aaron
> I wasn't able to get chopin or lou to answer my
> e-mails so i am sorry i cannot tell you more. It seems
> when he played the Barcarolle is in F-sharp major he could
> have just tuned it to that key. There is no reason to think
> that tuning practice were uniform throughtout europe. It
> is hard to guess what was going on in poland and maybe he
> liked all those 'weird' intervals. i know that the
> 'devil's interval' has been moved from the tritone to
> the 40/27 and the 27/20 and like intervals, but maybe
> know one told the audience and everybody had a great time
> in the ol parlor. I myself wouldn't want to give them up
> for anything.

since you wrote "It is hard to guess what was going on in poland"
... for the record:

Chopin was born in Poland in 1810, to a Polish mother and a
French father. In 1830, he went to Vienna, expecting to travel
from there to Italy and then back to Poland. But the
Russo-Polish war broke out and resulted in the Russian
occupation of Poland. So in 1831 Chopin went to Paris and
lived there as an exile until he died in 1849.

Only his 2 concertos and a small handful of the etudes, mazurkas,
and polonaises were actually written in Poland. A few of his
major works were written in Vienna, all the rest were in Paris
or Majorca.

you can read these highlights of his life in context at:

http://sonic-arts.org/monzo/schoenberg/Vienna1905.htm

it would probably be more relevant to know what
tunings were in use in Paris during the 1830s and '40s.

(as an aside: i know, for instance, that Halevy wrote one of
the earliest "modern" quarter-tone pieces in 1849 in his
incidental music to _Prométhee Enchainé_.)

-monz

Hello Monz.!
I thought most of the walzes were from his teens. regardless ones ear might not change overnight and possibly the sound of his piano might have made it stand out much more ( even if his music sounds an awful lot like John Field). But yes who really knowswhat was happening in Paris.

>
> From: "monz" <monz@attglobal.net>
> Subject: Re: Chopin with his wrench
>
> hi kraig,
>
> --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, kraig grady <kraiggrady@a...> wrote:
>
> > Hi Aaron
> > I wasn't able to get chopin or lou to answer my
> > e-mails so i am sorry i cannot tell you more. It seems
> > when he played the Barcarolle is in F-sharp major he could
> > have just tuned it to that key. There is no reason to think
> > that tuning practice were uniform throughtout europe. It
> > is hard to guess what was going on in poland and maybe he
> > liked all those 'weird' intervals. i know that the
> > 'devil's interval' has been moved from the tritone to
> > the 40/27 and the 27/20 and like intervals, but maybe
> > know one told the audience and everybody had a great time
> > in the ol parlor. I myself wouldn't want to give them up
> > for anything.
>
> since you wrote "It is hard to guess what was going on in poland"
> ... for the record:
>
> Chopin was born in Poland in 1810, to a Polish mother and a
> French father. In 1830, he went to Vienna, expecting to travel
> from there to Italy and then back to Poland. But the
> Russo-Polish war broke out and resulted in the Russian
> occupation of Poland. So in 1831 Chopin went to Paris and
> lived there as an exile until he died in 1849.
>
> Only his 2 concertos and a small handful of the etudes, mazurkas,
> and polonaises were actually written in Poland. A few of his
> major works were written in Vienna, all the rest were in Paris
> or Majorca.
>
> you can read these highlights of his life in context at:
>
> http://sonic-arts.org/monzo/schoenberg/Vienna1905.htm
>
> it would probably be more relevant to know what
> tunings were in use in Paris during the 1830s and '40s.
>
> (as an aside: i know, for instance, that Halevy wrote one of
> the earliest "modern" quarter-tone pieces in 1849 in his
> incidental music to _Prom�thee Enchain�_.)
>
> -monz
>
>
>
>
>
>

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM WED 8-9PM PST