> In the case of 18th and early 19th century music there is a certain
> logic, although it is hard to say if D major is associated with
> festivity, royalty and war because trumpets stood mainly in that key,
> or if it was the other way around. Fact is, that in most temperaments
> D is one of the keys with the most in tune main intervals. ("Our" key
> of F is much harder in these temperaments because some basic intervals
> fall the wrong way for natural tuning)I'm interested to hear you talk about the trumpet here, as the sources I've read on temperaments tend to focus on string and keyboard instruments. It frustrated me that they didn't mention brass and woodwind more often, but I have never been very clear in my own mind what I expected them to say about them. In other words, I couldn't really formulate a question, but I feel sure there must be an interesting answer! Take the situation where a valveless brass instrument that 'naturally' produces notes in the harmonic series plays with an orchestra or keyboard that is tuned to a different (but historically plausible) temperament: if I understand you correctly, 'D' is one of the keys where the discrepancy between the brass instruments and the other instruments is likely to be minimised? Are there any other keys that work particularly well or particularly badly, or are we able to lip everything enough that the natural discrepancy doesn't really matter? Perhaps our ability to hand-stop is the reason horns seem to be crooked in so many more keys than trumpets? These are just examples of the ill-formed questions running through my mind - I'd be interested to hear any comments about playing horns in the days before equal temperament. Kit _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
