source file: m1412.txt Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 10:16:47 -0700 Subject: Re: TUNING digest 1404 From: alves@orion.ac.hmc.edu (Bill Alves) Paul Hahn: >(b) Just because tunings weren't 100% exactly 12TET doesn't disqualify > the music of the Baroque period from being (in some essential way) > 12TET-ish, as it were. Heck, most purportedly 12TET instruments > even today aren't all that exact--see Barbour, or the recent thread > on synthesizer tuning resolution. To me, the essential things are > that there are 12 pitch/interval classes and no wolves; if those two > conditions are met (that pretty much describes the circulating > temperaments that were used increasingly throughout the Baroque) I'd > be willing to call it some form of 12TET. I agree to a point, but I think that there was at least one other important criterion that influenced composers -- the relative distribution of the comma. That is, some wolf-less tunings clearly give more consonance to the more commonly played keys. The more foreign keys, while still playable, have relatively more dissonant intervals. This gives pieces in foreign keys a very different affect or mood that Baroque composers were often preoccupied with. However, there are other temperaments in which the "preference" for a particular key is minor, and the comma is distributed more or less symmetrically around the circle of fifths. Of course a precisely equal distribution would be equal temperament, but I'm thinking here of Neidhardt or Marpurg, whose temperaments, according to Barbour, "all keys are pretty much alike, whether nearer to C major or F# major." So, if your point is that a composer will write the same music whether the temperament is 12TET or 12TET-like, I would have to add the above criterion (symmetrical distribution of dissonance) to your two conditions on the definition of 12TET-like. However, I think with that added condition it applies much more to post-Baroque music than Baroque. I think even Mr. Well-Tempered Clavier himself suffers when shoe-horned into that most equally gray of tunings. Bill ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ Bill Alves email: alves@hmc.edu ^ ^ Harvey Mudd College URL: http://www2.hmc.edu/~alves/ ^ ^ 301 E. Twelfth St. (909)607-4170 (office) ^ ^ Claremont CA 91711 USA (909)607-7600 (fax) ^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^