source file: mills2.txt Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 18:10:57 -0700 Subject: WTC From: Paul Rapoport I finally got a look a few weeks ago at Davitt Moroney's WTC on Harmonia mundi. I can't tell which tuning(s) he uses, especially as I have not heard a note of the disks. The extensive written notes seem to imply equal temperament, but even this isn't clear. The evidence brought out for this is the well-known fact that some of the pieces were transposed as little (and therefore as far) as a semitone by Bach. If this proves equal temperament, it's some kind of logic I don't yet get. There are other arguments, many of which have appeared on this list. I landed a copy of Huguette Dreyfus's Book 1 on Denon. The notes say she is using Werckmeister 3 and then go on to say this is 12-note equal temperament. I checked the original German, and yes, that's what the writer claims. Anyhow, the playing is not always of the highest quality. Of course, WTC is hardly the music to use extreme tunings on in the name of historical authenticity (there may be other reasons). Anyone know what Gilbert or Leonhardt uses? When I asked Colin Tilney what he used, he said he didn't know; he had just asked his tuner to set up something reasonable. I suspect this may be the case with many (certainly not all) performers. Paul Rapoport Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Thu, 17 Oct 1996 05:28 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA01895; Thu, 17 Oct 1996 05:30:37 +0200 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA01898 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id UAA05582; Wed, 16 Oct 1996 20:30:35 -0700 Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 20:30:35 -0700 Message-Id: <199610170327.UAA28279@well.com> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu