George supposedly once said something to the effect of "My grammar/vocabulary/diction/(??) is barbed wire to keep out the uninitiated."

Does any George expert here have the precise reference? It was quoted favorably by Schönberg, I'm told. Don't have direct access to the quote, either. Dika Newlin, maybe? Doubtful.

No need for apologies Mr Tin - although I've been around here for only a short time, it's long enough for me to appreciate the wisdom, wit and (indeed) relevance (even if somewhat ephemeral in its outward appearance) of Mr Grew's gorgeous contributions. (Do you happen to know, Mr Tin, whether he gives English lessons - if he does I might prevail upon his savoir-faire in the future [assuming, of course, he is not averse to coaching an old, crotchety street-wise bully of a women like me!]).

Unfortunately, I cannot in all honesty claim that all the ideas I advanced here constitute what you term a 'première publication'. But those that have previously appeared were never published in any outlet stemming from the North-West of England! They were (in various reconstituted forms) published in various outlets stemming from the South of England, together with the west coast of the USA. Beyond that, my lips are sealed.

 

I believe that the first interpretation of the squiggle as being a tuning diagram was by Andreas Sparschuh of the Technical University, Darmstadt in 1999. So yes, fairly recent.

I have replied with a new thread at http://r3ok.myforum365.com/index.php?topic=2928.msg109468#msg109468

Baz

He writes in his programme text: "...it has recently become fashionable to claim that Bach intended Das Wohltemperierte Clavier to be played on a harpsichord tuned not in equal temperament, but rather in Werckmeister's system, or some comparable kind of unequal temperament... the hypothesis that Bach might have composed pieces in all the keys precisely because he wished to exploit the tonal characteristics of an unequal temperament simply does not stand up to serious reasoning. This is shown by the fact that he actually transposed some pieces from simple keys... to difficult ones..."

So I'm thinking equal. The recording doesn't do much for me in any case.

It sounds to me like equal temperament, or something as close to it as makes no difference, and I don't find it particularly interesting either. (I love his French Suites though.)

A few days ago viola d'amore came up in my conversation with a friend.

I can not read all the thread because it will take too much time. I don't know if you already talked about viola d'amore.

A friend bought a good viola d'amore few years ago in Romania. It is a beautiful instrument, but it has to be tuned often.
My friend told me that the player had to stop between each movement to tune and there was a need to stop and tune even before the end of a movement.

Another friend said that if they so to speak break the neck of the viola like on baroque pictures, then it will be better.
I can not explain because I don't understand it myself, but my friend wants to try.

Why is it viola d'amore has difficulty to be tuned? Do they use viola d'amore in period instument orchestras or because of the reason I said before it is not used?

Here we think that it is very beautiful instrument with soulful tone.


I wish I could hear the concert with viola d'amore that he heard his friend played. I played Marais music with viola player. We liked it very much, but were not sure if the time of these music is behind us.
My composer-friend loved it.