A Bach prelude in three different temperaments.

this is a fairly extensive remake of a video I made approximately seven years ago in which I performed the C major Prelude from the first book of Bach's well-tempered clavier using order , mean tone temperament the video was simply a performance of the piece without any sort of explanation concerning the suitability of this temperament for this Prelude or box music short answer it's not suitable so what I would like to do here is discuss this aspect of suitable temperaments and also offer a comparison by performing the same Prelude in three different temperaments namely quarter coma mean tone rommel which is the temperament I tend to use quite a bit and canburger three and I will explain why I have chosen those three specifically first a little context we use temperaments because if we tune pure major thirds and pure perfect fifths that is observing their actual mathematical ratios we run into two problems simultaneously tuning major thirds pure results in octaves that are too narrow tuning perfect fifths pure results in the opposite problem octaves that are too wide so in order to have our octaves in tune we have to modify or temper our thirds and fifths in some way and if I were to simplify the situation a bit and when it comes to discussing temperaments I have to do some simplifying otherwise this video will take several hours one very difficult balancing act involves the kinds of sacrifices we're willing to make when tempering thirds and fifths verses the ability to play in all available tonalities the three temperaments I have chosen to use in this video so three distinctive approaches quarter column in tone retains eight pure major thirds the downside to having so many pure thirds is that the remaining four major thirds are very wide in one fifth usually the one between a flat and E flat is impossibly wide because it's really diminished sixth between G sharp and E flat there are by the way no and harmonic equivalents in this temperament there is only G sharp and not a flat just like there's only a flat and not the sharp so this strange fifth is called the wolf fifth what all this means in practical terms is that while tonality z' up to a couple of sharps and flats are not only playable but also sound very beautiful tonalities with more accidentals are in many respects unplayable and some don't even exist while this can seem very limiting to us as I have argued in previous videos quarter column in tone also has several unique characteristics that once you become aware of their existence it is very hard to live without them this includes not only the beautiful major thirds in the harmonies they produce but also the very distinctively beautiful chromatic scale since semitones are far from equidistant also if you're familiar with the more objectionable characteristics and know how to navigate through them you can actually use them for expressive purposes or to add a temporary spice to the harmonic mix this is of course what happens in a lot of 17th century reparatory which loses quite a lot of its color as well as aspects of its expressive content when we use temperaments that solve so to speak some of the issues associated with Minton switching now to the remote temperament you can think of it as a compromise between retaining the beauty of pure major thirds and allowing more flexibility when it comes to playable tonalities four of the eight pure thirds are sacrificed but in return the very wide thirds and the wolf v are now gone this means that most finalities are playable with each turn allottee having very distinctive colors and as I've mentioned in previous videos this has become my favorite temperament and I use it for the majority of the music I play of course Bach's well-tempered clavier encompasses all turn a letís so we would probably run into trouble in at least a couple of preludes and fugues if we use the remote temperament there's a myth out there which unfortunately still seems to persist the Bach growth the well-tempered clavier to demonstrate the ability to play in every turn ality through the use of equal temperament this is absolutely not true because there's an entire category of unequal temperaments known as circulating or wealth temperaments think well-tempered clavier that allow you to play in every turn ality but unlike equal temperament these circulating temperaments have varying sizes of thirds and fifths so that each finality has its own distinctive color or flavor if you will in contrast to the blandness of equal temperament everything sounds the same this type of circulating temperament is what Bob had in mind although we don't know precisely which one he would have used or if indeed he had a specific one in mind normally the circulating temperaments exhibit a different approach compared to quarter column in tone or mo in that there are various combinations of pure and impure perfect fifths while thirds are not pure in this regard they can Berger three circulating temperaments I will use in this video represents somewhat of an anomaly as it retains one pure major third between C and E however I think that this anomaly provides an interesting connection between the three temperaments I'm using as we go from eight pure major thirds to four and finally to one conveniently all three temperaments share the pure major third from C to e this means that the opening sonority of this present is going to be similar among all three temperaments before the colors of each harmony start diverging as the piece progresses my decision to choose this particular Prelude was based on two considerations first since it consists of arpeggiated chords it works quite well in demonstrating the differences between temperaments especially as you get the chance to hear every chord twice before moving on to the next one secondly it is a great example of how boss harmonic thinking really does not work with quarter comma mean tone temperament as even such a simple piece in the most basic tonality has a couple of sour moments on the other hand the vast majority of the harmonies work so beautifully that when I switch to a more correct temperament I actually started missing some of that beauty this is why I find the remote temperament ideal for this piece because it retains much of the beauty of mean tone but without any of the harmonies sounding out of place now when I say all this I am not advocating using mean tone for Bach this Prelude is in C major after all so it's bound to work for the most part likewise the remote temperament is not what BA had in mind because it is not really a circulating temperament but just in this prelate I find that a circulating temperament sounds a little pedestrian coming after mean tone and Ramon and although again I have to stress there's no historical justification for it I like to use the remote temperament for box music when I can get away with it simply because I like its colors as a matter of fact I've used it in all of my previous Bach videos so you can listen and see what you think but for now here is the first Prelude in C major from the first book of the well-tempered clavier as always thank you for watching and I hope you enjoy the performances you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] you you [Music] [Applause] [Music] you you [Music] [Music] [Music] you you

Channel: John Moraitis

Views: 348,518

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Id: kRui9apjWAY

Length: 17min 11sec (1031 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 30 2019