> Roman wrote:
>>> Monteverdi operas modulate sufficiently for Claudio M. to have him ask his
>>> musicians to tune in ET, for which he suffered criticism from a gentleman
>>> named Artusi.
> I wrote:
>> I ... can't find any reference to equal temperament from either Monteverdi
>> or Artusi. Perhaps you could specify?
> Roman wrote:
>> You might still have Margo Schulter's message with the info. I have deleted
>> all of them.......
> I can't seem to delete newsgroup postings.
> Last December 7, Margo said that Artusi took Monteverdi to task for writing
> intervals that sounded harsh in the less-tempered tuning of singers, though
> they would sound OK on lutes, which were more tempered (Margo accepts
> uncritically Lindley's interpretation that lutes were normally tuned in
> equal temperament. I voice disagreement whenever I happen to read one of
> her posts, which isn't all that often). Nothing about instructing musicians
> to play in equal temperament (Artusi could not have known what Monteverdi
> told his musicians, and Artusi's signed essays did not even mention
> Monteverdi's name). Modulation didn't enter into it. Nor did Monteverdi's
> operas, which didn't yet exist.
I didn't say that Artusi's criticism was directed at CM's instructions. It
was directed at his practice. Composers are practical creatures and I doubt
they were given to the masochism and snobbery of the type of our friend in
Helsinki.
I think we can permit ourselves some perspicacious conjecture that CM tuned
in ET because long cyclical works go through such a sufficient number of
different keys that ET would have been warranted.And it solves a lot more
problems that it creates.
RT
