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Harpsichords and Related Topics

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From:
Joseph Spencer <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Harpsichords and Related Topics <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 22 Nov 1994 16:00:37 -0800
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You wrote:
 
>
Some responses to John Howell's posting:
 
>********
>I have a simple (I hope) question for the real tuning people out there.
 I
>often have to re-tune harpsichords for rehearsals or, occasionally, for
>performances.  I'm not trained, and I don't pretend to understand the
math,
>but I can usually get a useable meantone (sometimes meaner than
others!) or
>more or less equal (which I hate!) temperament.  (I'm a musician, and
I'd
>rather trust my ear than the meter on a tuner.  I seem to be in the
>minority on this.)
 
I applaud this view, and encourage it in amateur and professional
musician friends, because there is a payoff:  the better you can set a
termperament, the better you can hear it, whether it's you, someone
else, or a recording that's playing.  It enhances one's experience of
music.  Not a bad payoff.
 
Instead of using an A-fork, I prefer to start by
>setting C to a C-fork (523.25 hz) because it seems to me that C major
>should be the center of the circle.  As a result, of course, I end up
with
>an A that is probably higher than 440 hz.
 
Where your A ends up will depend on the temperament.  If you can get to
the point that you understand a termperament, be it meantone,
Werckmaister, equal, on the level of how it functions musically, you can
jump into it at any point and set the whole thing from there.  That's a
bit advanced, but not too much so from the standpoint of A vs C. It's
different for each termperament, but you develop a little mental toolkit
with three or four that will cover most situations, and you carry a book
or notes for specific others (Valotti, etc.)
 
After a while you find that you can manipulate the matrix of temperament
to yield the results you want, and the game gets really interesting.
 
Recently I was recording with Ed Parmentier the Bach Toccatas, and I
knew the F# minor was coming up, and I hadn't dealt with the proper
temperament to use for it.  [As a policy I like to use the temperament
that is farthest from equal but still appropriate to the piece,
historically and musically.] I ended up making a map of the key areas
that dominate that rather peculiar work, and comparing them to common
temperaments of the period. What I noticed was that the predominate
tonal areas were a half-tone sharp of the "good" key areas in
Werckmeister (or any of the usual modified meantones of the time).  I
immediately thought "transposing keyboard", and furrowed my brow,
thinking "If only Bach had a transposing keyboard!"  I talked with John
Koster at the Shrine to Music Museum about it, and he pointed out that
North Germany and indeed Thuringia seems to have been a center for such
devices, as they appear on some of the earliest instruments there.
So... we tuned the Jacques Germain instrument in Werckmeister transposed
 a half step, and the result was magical.  I don't know if others have
made this discovery, but it was great fun.
 
Best,
 
Joseph Spencer [log in to unmask]
The Musical Offering Classical Record Shop & Cafe
2430 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94704
ph (510)849-0211, toll-free 800-478-MUSIC
FAX 510-849-9214

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