Bach

Yesterday, (Sunday), I went to a performance of the first six preludes and fugues in Bach's Well Tempered Klavier. That alone would have been cool enough, but the performer, from the Madison Bach Society, did a bunch of talking about the pieces, and about Bach before he played. Also, he was playing on a harpsichord that one of the guys in the audience had built. Though the performer clearly knew all about it too. It had a really cool sound (of course), and there were two sets of strings, one tuned an octave higher than the other. He could switch between one or the other, or play both at the same time! There was also a lute stop, which also had a very cool effect.

Another cool thing about it was the tuning. Instead of using the modern even tone tuning (each not is exactly the same distance apart), he was the Well-Tempered tuning used in Bach's time. Now, contrary to what you might think, our current tuning is not necessarily better than the Well-Tempered tuning. In fact, the Well-Tempered tuning was used almost exclusively up until WWI, and by WWII and after, everyone had switched almost exclusively to the Even Tone tuning. What the WT tuning does is give each key its own "character," whereas in ET they all sound the same. This has a very cool affect, and makes much of the classic music sound worlds better, though I'm not sure what it would do to some of the more modern pieces (ones by Rachmaninoff, for example).

AUG! I need to leave for my piano lesson! Ha, well, I got to play the harpsichord too, and it was way different than a piano and super cool, and I totally want one now, but I have to go! Hope that was interesting. :)

The Owner, Heirron