source file: m1581.txt
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 09:31:10 -0800

Subject: Again, sorry, Mozart Tuning

From: curley@ucla.edu (Doren Garcia)

Hello Tuning Buddies,

I thought I sent this message, earlier but I didn't see it show up and
received no
reply.

I'm doing a paper on Mozart, specifically the differences between period
instramentation
and current instramentation and I'm wondering what kind of a system he was
likely to tune in.

My teacher sent me this answer to my question:

--------

 1) Your performance in class (quartet). The tuning was different around
A (not 440). Was the tuning center the only one they used in Mozarts
time? And, was it in the standard tempering system we use today or in
something else (meantone?)?

We used A=430 as a kind of approximation of a pitch standard for
Mozart's day -- there wasn't one (whole notion of a standard hadn't
really evolved yet) but woodwind inst's surviving from the period are
usually pitched around there.
We try to play in just intonation, which I assume you know is
situational -- one tunes pure to the chord or tonality one is in,
adjusting with modulations etc. This is an ideal. In practice, we
probably aren't all that just, but I know we do tune purer 3rds & 6ths,
and lower leading-tones than is common in "modern-instrument" playing.

--------

Can anyone add to this? Are there any other tuning scenarios or?


I knew that modulation from key to key was problematical in JI however
this is enlightening to me as I was unaware that JI tuning was situational.
Any comments on this statement?

Thanks buddies.

Doren Garcia
UCLA Design Senior