source file: m1581.txt
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 14:10:40 -0600 (CST)

Subject: Re: Again, sorry, Mozart Tuning

From: Paul Hahn <Paul-Hahn@library.wustl.edu>

On Fri, 13 Nov 1998, Doren Garcia wrote:
> I'm doing a paper on Mozart, specifically the differences between period
> instr[u]mentation
> and current instr[u]mentation and I'm wondering what kind of a system he was
> likely to tune in.

The following is an old message of mine to the list:
*** BEGIN QUOTED-ARTICLE ***
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 1997 17:04:34 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Re: Historical temperaments

If one looks at the record in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe of Thomas Atwood's
composition lessons with Mozart, one sees that Mozart starts him writing
out diatonic and chromatic scales, noting that a wholetone must contain
both a greater and a lesser semitone and that sharps are lower than the
enharmonic flats.  This without any reference to specific instruments.
To me this indicates Mozart tends to think in meantone.

(One also notes Mozart's tendency to call Atwood an ass when he makes
rather egregious part-writing errors. 8-)> )

--pH <manynote@library.wustl.edu> http://library.wustl.edu/~manynote <*>
    O
   /\        "Foul?  What the hell for?"
  -\-\-- o   "Because you are chalking your cue with the 3-ball."

*** END QUOTED-ARTICLE ***

> My teacher sent me this answer to my question:
> -------- [snip]
> 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.
> --------
> 
[snip]
> 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?

Of course it's situational.  If you're playing just intervals, you can't
play the same note in the region between G and A against a C as you
would against an E.

It sounds to me like your teacher is trying for purer thirds, i.e.
distinguishing enharmonics, but not worrying about the smaller
(un-notated) comma shifts that JI fundamentalism would entail.  This is
quite compatible with a meantone mindset also.

--pH <manynote@lib-rary.wustl.edu> http://library.wustl.edu/~manynote
    O
   /\        "'Jever take'n try to give an ironclad leave to
  -\-\-- o    yourself from a three-rail billiard shot?"

             NOTE: dehyphenate node to remove spamblock.          <*>

------------------------------

End of TUNING Digest 1581
*************************