Records with phytagorean and well-tempered tunings ?

psiXaos · 08-26-2004, 12:58 PM

I've been doing some reading on the history of tunings recently, it's fascinating stuff. And also learning that our 'modern' instruments are not acutally in-tune on purpose is surprising to me.

Now, I am really corious to listen some music with other historic or alternative tuning systems. Where can I find some phytagorean perfectly tuned medieval music, meantone tuned renaissance music, and well-tempered tuned barouqe music ?

Also as I understand of it, the equal-temperament tuning used in west today, produces no tonal differences between different keys. But a friend of me, who is a piano player have said to me sometime ago that they are indeed differences in the 'feelings' of the keys with piano, is it true? Also all additional info on the subject is greatly welcome...

Thanks for your help.
.pXs.

silent-storm · 08-27-2004, 03:18 AM

Can't tell you where to find the music, but the comment on different keys is very true. Keys do have unique "feelings" to them. Ask anyone with perfect pitch or someone that can recognize keys. A while back I had a theory teacher that liked to show off quite bit and he'd always say stuff like "as you can see, this peice is in the dark blue key of e major." then he'd play it and it would actually make sense. A good way to test this is to do some transposing. Ever wonder why some tunes (especially jazz standards) will be commonly played in 2 or 3 keys but not many more? Because they don't sound like the original if it's in some obscure key...not that there's anything wrong with playing stuff in strange keys...but it may end up not really sounding like a song written by the original composer.

Frank · 08-27-2004, 06:57 PM

Here is a link that will give some examples in the tunings you mentioned :-

http://music.cwru.edu/duffin/Tuning/Recs/

and a few here :-

http://pages.globetrotter.net/roule/demos.htm

There are vast numbers of websites that cover this subject, here are just a couple :-

http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~oneskull/3.6.04.htm

http://www.johnminor.net/writings/overview.htm

08-26-2004, 12:58 PM	#1
psiXaos Registered User Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Anatolia Posts: 38	Records with phytagorean and well-tempered tunings ? I've been doing some reading on the history of tunings recently, it's fascinating stuff. And also learning that our 'modern' instruments are not acutally in-tune on purpose is surprising to me. Now, I am really corious to listen some music with other historic or alternative tuning systems. Where can I find some phytagorean perfectly tuned medieval music, meantone tuned renaissance music, and well-tempered tuned barouqe music ? Also as I understand of it, the equal-temperament tuning used in west today, produces no tonal differences between different keys. But a friend of me, who is a piano player have said to me sometime ago that they are indeed differences in the 'feelings' of the keys with piano, is it true? Also all additional info on the subject is greatly welcome... Thanks for your help. .pXs. Last edited by psiXaos; 08-26-2004 at 01:01 PM.

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08-27-2004, 03:18 AM	#2
silent-storm Registered User Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Canada Posts: 1,123	Can't tell you where to find the music, but the comment on different keys is very true. Keys do have unique "feelings" to them. Ask anyone with perfect pitch or someone that can recognize keys. A while back I had a theory teacher that liked to show off quite bit and he'd always say stuff like "as you can see, this peice is in the dark blue key of e major." then he'd play it and it would actually make sense. A good way to test this is to do some transposing. Ever wonder why some tunes (especially jazz standards) will be commonly played in 2 or 3 keys but not many more? Because they don't sound like the original if it's in some obscure key...not that there's anything wrong with playing stuff in strange keys...but it may end up not really sounding like a song written by the original composer.

08-27-2004, 06:57 PM	#3
Frank Registered User Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 34	Here is a link that will give some examples in the tunings you mentioned :- http://music.cwru.edu/duffin/Tuning/Recs/ and a few here :- http://pages.globetrotter.net/roule/demos.htm There are vast numbers of websites that cover this subject, here are just a couple :- http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~oneskull/3.6.04.htm http://www.johnminor.net/writings/overview.htm