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Re: piano tuning etc.




Was modulation employed as a musical device before the invention of equal
temperment?
Leigh


Before equal temperament, each key had its own "feel" and composers
were well aware of that fact.

As I recall, F major was typically tuned to perfect intervals, so
there were no beats and everything felt peaceful. Thus songs like
lullabies would be written in F major. If you wanted a livelier mood,
you composed in a differnt key. By the time you get to F# major, it
sounds so atrocious, that nobody would write in that key.

So, modulating by, say, a third or fifth gave just a slight change in
feel, while modulating by half a step would have been disaster!


--- Tim


---------------------------------------------------------
Timothy J. Folkerts email: tim.folkerts@valpo.edu
Department of Physics phone: 219-464-6634
Valparaiso University
Valparaiso, IN 46383