source file: m1588.txt Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1998 10:42:18 EST Subject: harmonization of songs on piano From: Ascend11@aol.com There were three posts responding to my speculation regarding what I had taken to have been a positive response of a community of indians in North Dakota to the musical efforts of the missionary who had brought the piano. There is first the matter of what, in fact were the true feelings of those indians. Bill Alvez took the view, which I still share, that their reaction was positive. On the other hand Neil Haverstick suggested that the missionary had mistaken their loud drumming for an enthusiastic response while actually they had not liked the sound of his piano playing and were drumming so loudly not out of musical inspiration whetted by the missionary's work, but rather to drown out sounds which they were finding most disagreeable and didn't want to hear. Judith Conrad, who wrote what seemed to be a somewhat detailed account, indicated that it was her assumption that the indians were trying to drown out the awful sound of the missionary's piano playing. My post was a pure speculation as I had not known anything of the missionary's account before reading her post. It could be that there are other indications in the book of the missionary's insensitivity to how others were reacting, etc. which would support the interpretation that the indians really didn't appreciate the missionary's efforts. Judith wrote: "He would have the native singers sing him their favorite songs, and then he would figure out how to 'harmonise them properly'". It would seem to me that this process would have required some time and effort on the part both of the singers and of the missionary. Thinking about it, I would imagine that the missionary and the singers would have spent some time together and that the missionary would have tried out his arrangements of their songs with the singers who were instructing him in how the songs went. Is it not possible that the conflicts which lay ahead had not yet grown to the point where they would have marred their spirit of cooperation? I could imagine the missionary's hosts seeming to be more enthusiastic about their mutual efforts than they actually were, and the missionary coming away with such an impression, but their trying to drown out sounds which they detested seems very unlikely to me, although from this distance it's difficult to be sure. But supposing the harmonizing of their traditional songs actually was something which most of them really found delightful? It seems to me that this is possible. Played on a piano in harmony, their songs would in one way remain the very familiar songs which they had liked so much, and yet there would be something radically new about them inasmuch as they were harmonized. This is the way I believe I might react. Craig Grady had written: "...This music is gone for the most part or greatly corrupted by 12 et etc." I believe it's probable that the missionary's piano was tuned to mean tone temperament. I have to say that I believe music played on such a piano would have had a far greater and more positive impact on people hearing it for the first time than would "the same" music played on a piano tuned to equal temperament. Many will disagree. We can't know full details regarding the reactions of people who lived long ago, but research into the matter can be done. Personally, when I started hearing music on a piano in mean tone temperament and just intonation after having heard virtually nothing but equal tempered piano all my life, I thought it was something wonderful. Just hearing that kind of a piano made me feel like getting up and starting to sing and dance. I found it hard to believe that a piano, of all musical instruments, could sound so beautiful. I have found quite a few who react similarly to the way I do. Many do not. But I am not the only one who feels that this piano sounds pretty terrific, and maybe quite a few of those with whom the missionary worked did, too.