Brad, Dale,

Am I wrong in recollecting that Buxtehude's organ music has come down
to us in mostly transposed ms? Perhaps better to look at his
harpsichord music alone for what evidence there might be.

Disclaimer: I am not a muscologist nor do I play one on TV.


On Thu, 4 Nov 2004 10:28:22 -0500, Brad Lehman wrote:

>Dale wrote (about the last phrase of Froberger's Blancrocher):
>
>>Woops!  That low e-flat escaped me.  Apologies to David & Froberger!
>>
>>The wide compass needs no explanation, IMHO.
>>
>>The objection to the introduction of such evidence is precisely the
>>assumption that it is evidence.  But it is surely no more satisfactory as
>>evidence of the particulars of Froberger's harpsichord than the d-flats &
>>g-flats in Buxtehude's organ works are satisfactory evidence of the tuning
>>of Buxtehude's organ.
>
>Yes, but the paucity of those two particular flats, next to the wildfire
>spread of their enharmonic sharps, perhaps says something.  The other three
>flats are also pretty rare in Buxtehude, next to the sharps, if statistical
>counting means anything there.  Spend a couple hours flipping through the
>collected organ works of Buxtehude, noting the occurrences of *any* flats,
>and you'll see what I mean.
>
>I believe that at least *suggests* Werckmeister III or something very close
>to it, as Werck III is so heavily sharp-oriented and anti-flat-oriented in
>the placements of its notes (and not only in the German nomenclature of
>those notes)...just as Buxtehude's music also so strongly favors the sharps
>ahead of the flats.
>
>Furthermore, as a contrast against Werckmeister III in this investigation,
>*play* through all that Buxtehude in 1/6 comma meantone (with the typical
>compass including Eb, Bb, F#, C#, G#) and listen to Buxtehude's favoring of
>sharps, even where they're tuned as flats.  [Light enough as 1/6 comma, IMO
>it works very nicely most of the time, but not so well in 1/5 or 1/4.]
>
>Also note that any of this is something of a slippery slope, if tablature
>and/or transposition ever had anything to do with it....
>
>As for a discussion of the "chromatic" nomenclature (and perhaps also
>mindset) chez Werckmeister (and perhaps also Kuhnau), see Ledbetter's
>recent book about the WTC, where he inspects what "all the tones and
>semitones" means.  It's about getting the sharps to work, primarily, even
>if the flats don't participate so nicely.
>
>What's good enough for Buxtehude isn't good enough for Bach, however: more
>flats.
>
>
>Brad Lehman

Rodney Myrvaagnes           Opinionated old geezer                     J36 Gjo/a


"Bilgewater, I am the late Dauphin."