Howard, --- On Sun, 1/8/12, howard posner <[email protected]> wrote: > > Performances of their music were rare in those days, so the > issue of performance practice alternatives would not have > loomed large. And with the exception of the modern > early music movement, I can't think of many places and times > when we know that pitch was a matter of choice and subject > to discussion. Pitch was established by local practice > (I don't believe there were different pitches among players > in Vienna in, say, 1910), and you wouldn't expect players to > retune their pianos or buy a different clarinet to > accommodate a different pitch. Not for playing music > that was likely to draw ridicule or start a riot, anyway. >
OK, I used the Second Viennese School composers as an example due to the particular concern they had with timbre at a minute level. The issue could just as easily been voiced by Strauss, Mahler, Debussy, Ravel or others. Around the turn of the century, many composers began to focus increased attention on tone color as a compositional element. Yet, just as timbre was playing an increased role in their compositions, there are no comments from any of these guys about the considerable changes taking place in this element during their lifetimes. I'm still curious as to why no one seems to have had anything to say about this at the time. I have a hunch that perhaps they didn't perceive the changes to be as considerable as we do. Chris Christopher Wilke D.M.A. Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer www.christopherwilke.com > -- > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
