A392 sounds like it's in F major,A415 sounds like it's in Gb major or F# major and 440 (standard pitch sounds like it's in G major..sooo..what is the point of Baroque tuning again? Perhaps in the Baroque period it was useful but today it doesn't seem very useful..is it?
@pll89 Indeed, but don't confuse "tuning" with "pitch". The various pitch levels which have become standard today are very useful to accommodate playing with reproduction wind and stringed instruments. A415, a semitone lower than modern A440 is most often used and is known as "Baroque pitch". A392 is a semitone below that, and often used for early French music. A466, a semitone above modern pitch, is a common high Italian pitch.
@pll89 From a keyboardist's point of view, there is the physicality: Playing in the awkward hand position of F# Major—where the wrists must be rotated outwards so the thumbs can be over the sharps—will never be the same as "simple" F Major. Also, there is the affect of each key, which is very real in certain early temperaments. If you speak to a traverso player, every note has a particular natural timbre and volume. (These were ironed out for the modern flute, making it uniform at great loss.)
@rustydog1236 Actually, this instrument was tuned in a well-temperament, allowing every tonality with different key color. If I recorded this demo in Quarter-comma meantone, the hideousness of the middle key would render that pitch level unusable without retuning.
@hpschdnu I agree! I guess I said 'mean tone' as just sort of a generic, or not equal tempered. You have to admit there is still quite a difference in the tuning between 415 and the 392 & 440! I like to tune a small spinet I have in a quarter comma and then play through the 2 part inventions: it gives an xlnt demo to young students who can't quite figure out what all this temperament stuff is about. Thanks for video: I think teachers can use these videos who dont have a spinet handy!
A transposing keyboard on a harpsichord is very convenient, but if the instrument is tuned in an unequal temperament—as is usual for a harpsichord—the good keys get transposed along with the bad. Hence, playing in common keys on an instrument which was transposed AFTER tuning, may render those keys rough sounding. In this case, the simple example is played in the key of G, but those attuned to modern pitch would hear it in F, then F# (very rough) before G the third time.
Completely separate from the genius of the transposing mechanism, that harpsichord has an amazingly rich, powerful tone. It's warm, dry, flutey, juicy, and bell-like all at the same time, and it's really indescribably glorious. I wish I could afford an instrument like that.
Thanks for your enthusiastic comment, but as I mentioned in reply to a (negative) comment on another vid, do beware trying to judge the mono sound captured in mp1 by the tiny built-in microphone on the Sony DSC-P150 Cyber-shot placed behind the player below soundboard level, demuxed to aiff, resynced to the video, exported to mp4 with aac sound @ 22kHz and finally stuffed by YouTube processing and delivered through computer speakers on the other side of the world!
A392 sounds like it's in F major,A415 sounds like it's in Gb major or F# major and 440 (standard pitch sounds like it's in G major..sooo..what is the point of Baroque tuning again? Perhaps in the Baroque period it was useful but today it doesn't seem very useful..is it?
pll89 6 months ago
@pll89 Indeed, but don't confuse "tuning" with "pitch". The various pitch levels which have become standard today are very useful to accommodate playing with reproduction wind and stringed instruments. A415, a semitone lower than modern A440 is most often used and is known as "Baroque pitch". A392 is a semitone below that, and often used for early French music. A466, a semitone above modern pitch, is a common high Italian pitch.
hpschdnu 6 months ago
Comment removed
pll89 6 months ago
@pll89 From a keyboardist's point of view, there is the physicality: Playing in the awkward hand position of F# Major—where the wrists must be rotated outwards so the thumbs can be over the sharps—will never be the same as "simple" F Major. Also, there is the affect of each key, which is very real in certain early temperaments. If you speak to a traverso player, every note has a particular natural timbre and volume. (These were ironed out for the modern flute, making it uniform at great loss.)
hpschdnu 6 months ago
Cool. Good demo of the trasposing keyboard but an even better demo of Mean Tone!
rustydog1236 6 months ago
@rustydog1236 Actually, this instrument was tuned in a well-temperament, allowing every tonality with different key color. If I recorded this demo in Quarter-comma meantone, the hideousness of the middle key would render that pitch level unusable without retuning.
hpschdnu 6 months ago
@hpschdnu I agree! I guess I said 'mean tone' as just sort of a generic, or not equal tempered. You have to admit there is still quite a difference in the tuning between 415 and the 392 & 440! I like to tune a small spinet I have in a quarter comma and then play through the 2 part inventions: it gives an xlnt demo to young students who can't quite figure out what all this temperament stuff is about. Thanks for video: I think teachers can use these videos who dont have a spinet handy!
rustydog1236 6 months ago
Oh how my life would be complete if I owned a harpsichord :(
Tenifus 8 months ago
uao!!figo! stupendo!! davvero interessante...
giu13pet 1 year ago
ha ha. dobre to jest.
grzegorz19plonka 2 years ago
A transposing keyboard on a harpsichord is very convenient, but if the instrument is tuned in an unequal temperament—as is usual for a harpsichord—the good keys get transposed along with the bad. Hence, playing in common keys on an instrument which was transposed AFTER tuning, may render those keys rough sounding. In this case, the simple example is played in the key of G, but those attuned to modern pitch would hear it in F, then F# (very rough) before G the third time.
hpschdnu 3 years ago
It's a very good idea! Why the 415 is so out of tune? It's strange.
RoiSoleilXIV 3 years ago
Completely separate from the genius of the transposing mechanism, that harpsichord has an amazingly rich, powerful tone. It's warm, dry, flutey, juicy, and bell-like all at the same time, and it's really indescribably glorious. I wish I could afford an instrument like that.
baroqueboy 3 years ago
Thanks for your enthusiastic comment, but as I mentioned in reply to a (negative) comment on another vid, do beware trying to judge the mono sound captured in mp1 by the tiny built-in microphone on the Sony DSC-P150 Cyber-shot placed behind the player below soundboard level, demuxed to aiff, resynced to the video, exported to mp4 with aac sound @ 22kHz and finally stuffed by YouTube processing and delivered through computer speakers on the other side of the world!
hpschdnu 3 years ago
Thats very impressive and practical, like a a guitar capo on a keyboard!
michaeljking 3 years ago