re: TD 411 -- Reply to John deLaubenfels on dissonance...

>Though I would agree (perhaps strongly) with Margo, it should be pointed out
>that there is no record of Bach ever mentioning a subtly graduated scale of
>tension among the keys. Although quantitative studies of the WTC appear to
>reveal that its composition was indeed informed by such a tuning,

I've read this in several places, but can't remember any convincing
examples. I am more inclined to accept Everett Hafner's thesis, that the
tuning wrench was to be used before each piece. Two points on Hafner's
article:

1. He suggests that if the WTC was performed by order of 5ths rather than
number it would support his thesis, but the WTC was not meant to be
performed as a whole at all, and almost certainly was not during Bach's
lifetime.

2. The second book is much less forgiving than the first as far a staying
within the consonant areas of one 12-tone meantone key. And what was Bach
to do at the organ -- his organ book is the most chromatic of all his output.

>it is also known that a good number of its pieces were simply transposed
>from earlier works,

Some points of interest here: 1. Was the composition then so tailored to
the specific key of irregular temperament? 2. The first book of the WTC
was probably not meant to be published at all. 3. Bach did not see the
title "Well Tempered Clavier" in his lifetime.

>All we know for sure is that, once he had adopted the premise of a closed 12
>tone temperament, Bach instructed that the major thirds be tuned sharp in
>order to achieve that end.

Bach is definitely on record for preferring closed temperament. There's
even a story relayed by Bosanquet of Bach playing in the worst keys on a
meantone organ when its builder was around, to annoy him. When the builder
complains, Bach says, "You build them as you like, and I play them as I like".

-Carl

>Two points on Hafner's article:
>
>1. He suggests that if the WTC was performed by order of 5ths rather than
>number it would support his thesis,

Bach could have arranged them by 5ths, and I seem to recall that certain
historical precedents to the WTC (Fischer? Kuhnau?) were arranged that way
-- yet Bach decided, both in the 48 and in the Inventions and Sinfonia, to
arrange them scale-wise.

>but the WTC was not meant to be performed as a whole at all,

Of course not. Who would dream such a thing? It would take hours (though I
have heard of a competition where the pianists do just that -- how would
you like to judge that!).

>2. The first book of the WTC
>was probably not meant to be published at all.

Only a tiny fraction of Bach's work was published in his lifetime.

>3. Bach did not see the
>title "Well Tempered Clavier" in his lifetime.

The autograph title page of the first volume (dated 1722) is "Das Wohl
Temperirte Clavier or Preludes and Fugues through all the tones and
semitones both as regards the teria major or ut re mi and as concerns the
teria minor or re mi fa..." The Well Tempered Clavier is Bach's own title.

The idea that Bach intended to retune before each piece strikes me as
counter to the whole point of the Well Tempered Clavier. Why would Bach go
to the trouble of creating a collection of pieces in all the keys if not to
demonstrate that playing them from a singled "well tempered" tuning was
possible? It is true that many of the individual works can be played in
meantone, and may work quite well, but others are quite chromatic.

Bill

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