Brahms: Herzlich tut mich verlangen (#1) - Bradley Lehman

AUDIO ONLY. Brahms's chorale prelude "Herzlich tut mich verlangen" Op 122 #9. One of Brahms's last compositions, finished in summer 1896. It is performed here on a Beckerath organ in Emden, Germany, in 1997. Equal temperament; compare with the other recording (#2) played in the Bach tuning, 2005! Bradley Lehman, organist. The full-length CD "In Thee is Gladness" is available at http://www.larips.com . Direct ordering info: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/larips/cd1001.html

Category:

Music

Tags:

• brahms
• chorale
• prelude
• preludes
• pipe
• organ
• orgel
• herzlich
• tut
• mich
• verlangen
• lehman

[Amiduffer]

Its called the Verdi tuning, C256 vs the unnatural modern tuning of A440, since Verdi passed a law in the Italian parliament on this. Its nice that you posted a comparison of the two. An article on this topic is at Schiller Institute website, just put Verdi Tuning in the search box.

[thebpl]

The point here is not the absolute pitch level of C256 or A440 or whatever. Rather, it's the *temperament* of the instrument, i.e. the pitch relationships among the 12 notes in the octave. The organ in this sample is in equal temperament, with those 12 pitches equally spaced. The one in my comparative example is in Bach's UNEQUAL temperament.

[halloerde]

@Amiduffer The bpl, here, is addressing the difference between equal tempering, and well tempering. I have pondered this for four decades, and still, am not satisfied. One tempers steel, chocolate. It usually involves a mixture of time, and heat. Most importantly, it involves judgement. There is no tempering, without the temperer! Therefore, it can never be, a fixed system. (I cannot but help think of Plato's (Philebus) mixton, the tempering of the mortal, and immortal in the human individual.

[halloerde]

@Amiduffer Relative pitch, the ability to transpose, and hear exactly the same relationships, is very useful, like projective geometry. The voice, is closer to absloute pitch ( though it has elasticity), and thus tuning requires a proper friendship, between the two. 

[halloerde]

@Amiduffer As a former member of the Schiller Institute, I must say, that I have found pre-Bach organs, built by great builders, that differ in pitch, by as much as a fourth!!! if Bach standardized pitch, as I believe he did, it must have been by a radical shift to the voice as the central focus. That may seem odd, since the voice was always central, but whereas organs suffer loss in intent, but may still perform, by such large transpositions; the voice is destroyed by them.