Tuning D'jour

To Herman, Andreas, Tom & of course, Brad:

Thanks for the explanations of this tuning. But wow! Talk about the
proverbial can of worms! My question about this temperament related
solely to its melodic/harmonic possibilities, and not to historical and
musicological ramifications. Oy, the invective!

Questions for our harpsichordists:

1) What would you consider to be an apropriate, serviceable and generic
well-temperament for this instrument? For the organ?

2) Same question, re: meantone temperament?

3) How common are split keys on modern harpsichords (and organs), and in
what configuration -- that is, are all accidentals split? Or if just a
few, which most commonly?

4) Have you ever used a just tuning for certain historical styles? If
so, could you elaborate on the just tuning used?

5) Since you are on this particular list, curiosity gets the better of
me -- have you ever desecrated your instrument and horrified your
colleagues by playing contemporary (non-historical) harpsichord music in
an outre (non-historical) tuning? If so, can you amuse us with this
tale? If not, why? :-)

Best,

jls

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "J.Smith" <jsmith9624@...> wrote:
>
> To Herman, Andreas, Tom & of course, Brad:
>
> Thanks for the explanations of this tuning. But wow! Talk about the
> proverbial can of worms! My question about this temperament related
> solely to its melodic/harmonic possibilities, and not to historical and
> musicological ramifications. Oy, the invective!

Well, why would you be interested in only 'this temperament' and not
in dozens of other historical and modern possibilities?

> Questions for our harpsichordists:
>
> 1) What would you consider to be an apropriate, serviceable and generic
> well-temperament for this instrument?

But which instrument? Different harpsichords have quite different
timbres (partial structures and time evolution of tone). And many
historical instruments were almost certainly built with the
expectation of being tuned to meantone - then what would be doing by
putting 'well-temperament' on them?

Also, there is not much point in having a harpsichord 'generic
well-temperament' since the tuning of the instrument has at least to
be checked, if not completely overhauled, every time you want to
perform. Then you had better devise a specific 'well-temperament', or
indeed ill-temperament, depending on the intended repertoire or genre
and musical effect. That is, you'd better learn to adjust all the
relevant characteristics of the tuning by ear.

> For the organ?

As a harpsichordist, I can't say much about 'the organ' - except that
organs are rather more varied (i.e. less 'generic') in their tonal and
mechanical characteristics than harpsichords.

> 2) Same question, re: meantone temperament?

Sorry, you've lost me here. You can try many different types of
meantone, of which the easiest and arguably most consonant is 1/4
comma. However, there is absolutely no reason to pick a 'generic'
meantone in preference to all others: you may prefer to change between
meantones depending on the period / genre of music.

and...

2b) Why not ask about tunings which are neither meantone nor 'well' -
so-called modified meantone or temperament ordinaire? They had an
important historical role, and have unique musical properties.

> 3) How common are split keys on modern harpsichords (and organs)

Not very

> in what configuration

Most common is two: Eb/D# and G#/Ab

Next, but considerably rarer still, is probably the 19-note
configuration with 5 split accidentals plus E# and B#.

> 4) Have you ever used a just tuning for certain historical styles?

Only (very rarely) Pythagorean, which may or may not be classed as 'just'

As for 'desecration', I once strummed the Harry Lime theme on a
clavichord, which sounded rather good. The tuning wasn't anything
remarkable though.

~~~T~~~