
05-19-2007, 05:17 AM
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Junior Registered User
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Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 3
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The Piano Tuned for Bach???
How might Johann Sebastian Bach tune his pianoforte if he were alive today?
The pitch standard in the Baroque era was 415 Hz for the A above middle C, almost a semitone lower than the modern concert-pitch convention (in theory) of 440 Hz (USA) for the A above middle C. Modern pianos (in addition to the A440 pitch standard) are generally also tuned along some methodology of 'equal temperament'. (12 semitones over the octave).
The instrument-calibration rule in Bach's day was 'well temperament'. "Well tempered" means that the twelve notes per octave of the standard keyboard are tuned in such a way that it is possible to play music in any major or minor key and it will not sound perceptibly out of tune. In music theory, I would really not know how to compare today's equal temperament to the well temperament of Bach's time. I understand that equal temperament is some version of well temperament, even.
I think the piano has great potential for Bach's works. I have heard Invention 13 on "the tickled ivories" as well as some Well-Tempered Clavier Book I assortment of preludes and fugues (written in many various keys) and it sounds rather splendid. I can also imagine organ works as Bach's six trio sonatas, Concerto in A minor/Vivaldi and Concerto in G major/Ernst (organ transcriptions by Bach) in some small ensemble with a pianoforte as the central instrument. I have heard a rendition of the "Vivaldi A minor Concerto" in an ensemble with piano. Much of Bach's works were composed for organ and thus were of 3 voices or parts. In order to be adapted to three-voice pieces as the Bach organ works, a piano, I conceive, needs to be accompanied by at least one or more other instruments (woodwinds, strings possibly) because it is a 2-handed instrument (lacking bass pedal) capable of only playing two lines. A violin or cello, perhaps, could fill in the 3rd voice as in a duet. I could be wrong though. On the "other two hands", the piano can handle (or be adapted to handle through modification of the sheet music) two-voice (2-part) Bach pieces originally for solo harpsichord as the 2-part Inventions and Well-Tempered Clavier Book pieces quite well as a solo instrument.
Speaking of Bach trio sonatas, the Antonio Vivaldi/G minor and Johann Ernst/G major (Grave, 2nd movement in E-minor) concertos are much like the trio sonatas in form: 3 movements: fast-slow-fast (and 3 voices): they complement the Bach trio sonatas well. The great, late E. Power Biggs recorded them together on several of his Columbia Masterworks-label records: both organ and John Challis pedal harpsichord versions. Unfortunately, I cannot find these (with the Vivaldi/Ernst concertos) in CD print. My mother owned these on vinyl.
In conclusion, should the modern piano be left tuned according to the current norm for playing Baroque-period pieces or should it be tonally-calibrated to fit the Baroque period standard?
Last edited by Data_Jon : 05-19-2007 at 11:02 PM.
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