source file: mills2.txt Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1996 12:14:00 -0800 Subject: Re: Ornaments and Intonation From: Joseph Downing On Wed, 11 Dec 1996, Bill Alves wrote: > Dan Wolf brought up some issues in regard to the topic of ornaments and > intonation. I can't provide a reference off-hand, but I do remember my > harpsichord teacher years ago pointing out where Bach had a explicitly > indicated a trill, according to him, in order to obscure the wolf. (Not > really a wolf, since this is well-temperament, but a triad that's > relatively less pure.) I have noted that, while F# major triads do occur in baroque music, they are often of short duration. A favorite example is in the big Organ Prelude and Fugue in D. In the Prelude, the second section (dotted rhythms) there is a cadence on F# major which is notated as an eighth note followed by a pause. Immediately following is a sweep to a HUGE D major triad (very bright in well-tempered systems!), followed by a glorious Alla Breve. I am sure that the 'wimpiness' of the F# cadence creates a greater contrast to the glorious D major. This difference does not exist, of course, in equal temperament. I have also noted examples of this in Scarlatti sonatas. Joe Downing, in Syracuse Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Wed, 11 Dec 1996 21:54 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA25582; Wed, 11 Dec 1996 21:56:59 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA16937 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id MAA12731; Wed, 11 Dec 1996 12:56:56 -0800 Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1996 12:56:56 -0800 Message-Id: <199612111555_MC1-CF5-BB0D@compuserve.com> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu