source file: mills2.txt Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 11:25:33 -0700 Subject: Re: Bach's Tuning From: Bill Alves Johnny Reinhard wrote: > Should we really disregard J.P. Kirnberger's assertion that to change the > key of a composition into a distantly related key is to damage said > piece? Keep in mind that Kirnberger did more to promote J.S. Bach than > any of his kids. We should remember also that Kirnberger was an opponent of equal temperament and claimed that J. S. Bach did NOT use equal temperament. He even got a corroborating letter to that effect from Bach's son Emanuel. See: Johann Philipp Kirnberger, Die Kunst des reinen Satzes in der Musik, (Berlin and Koenigsberg: Decker & Hartung, 1774-79), facsimile repr. (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1968), vol. ii, p. 188. This controversy is recounted in: Rita Steblin. A History of Key Characteristics in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press), p. 92. Bill Alves alves@hmc.edu http://www2.hmc.edu/~alves/ Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Fri, 22 Sep 1995 22:09 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id NAA20944; Fri, 22 Sep 1995 13:09:22 -0700 Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 13:09:22 -0700 Message-Id: <00996CC07217D66C.20A2@ezh.nl> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu