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Hating and loving 1/6-comma — Temperament Part II

1件のコメント / Early Music, Essays / Koji Otsuki

(Originally posted in March, 2010) In the previous blog entry, I mentioned that you can characterize those temperament systems as either harmonic systems or melodic systems. The Pythagorean tuning is suited for monophonic lines because of the sharper mediants and leading tones, and thus it is a typical example of a melodic system. Not great at all for playing harmonies it is though. On the other hand, the mean-tone has just intonation major 3rds for harmonic purity; because of low mediants and leading tones, its melodic contours often suffer, but it is a harmonically pleasing temperament. The biggest problem of mean-tone is, because of the fact that twelve of those […]

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1/6-Pythagorean-comma mean-tone?? — Temperament Part I

1件のコメント / Early Music, Essays / Koji Otsuki

(Originally posted in March, 2010) If you just thought this title didn’t make sense, no, it does not make sense, at least to you and me. Perhaps some of you can help me understand this stuff better — I don’t have a mathematical mind and I can only go so far as to understand the temperament issues, but I don’t think I’m too stupid to understand the basics. Some of those claims out there doesn’t quite make sense to me…. Now, those of you who are thinking you’ll be in over your head talking temperament, you’ve got to stay with me. Let’s clarify what the mean-tone temperament is. Well,

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Period Instruments and Bach

Bach, Early Music, Essays / Koji Otsuki

(Originally posted in February 2010) Sometimes people ask me if I like any Bach performances on the modern instruments. Somehow they expect me to say ‘no,’ but my answer is actually ‘yes,’ with an asterisk. Those people who expected me to say ‘no’ might have heard me lightly criticize modern performances on some occasions.. I don’t deny I do that sometimes. But when I did that, I must have had no expectation as to what I was going to hear. When I hear the metal string sound from the high-tension turbo-charged modern violin with a continuous vibrato playing Bach, out of the blue, I may get a bit displeased. But

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Why Bach?

1件のコメント / Bach, Blog / Koji Otsuki

(Originally posted in January 2010) Sometimes people ask me why I’m so into Bach. They don’t just ask me that when I first tell them I love Bach; they ask me after they realize, following some one-on-one chat with me, that I have made some sacrifices for Bach study, and that Bach literally changed my life. When they realize that my “I love Bach” is a bit different from your “I love Beethoven (and such),” they ask me why I’m so obsessed with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The reasons are manifold. And perhaps most of them are something we all share — the same reasons why you love

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Do you like Bach?

About myself, Bach, Blog, Music / Koji Otsuki

(Originally posted in January 2010) Sometimes this happens to be the first question I ask upon meeting someone new. I ask this to a stranger hoping that I don’t have to engage in a small talk which I’m utterly bad at. And I ask myself: what are the odds they say no to that question…? I really don’t get to meet people from outside the music field anyway. They all should have something to say about Bach. What a nice way to skip the small talk and get straight to the substantial conversation! You do not find many musicians who are into fishing or football. No, not soccer, I mean

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