Klarinet Archive - Posting 000275.txt from 1996/10

From: "David B. Niethamer" <niethamer@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: tuning, devices & instinct
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 1996 23:04:09 -0400

Tom Labadorf wrote (among other things!)

>If you are playing music of Arnold Schoeberg or Paul
>Hindemith, you must play equal temperment.

I wonder if anyone on this list can speak to whether this is true of
Hindemith. A long time ago, I remember slogging through Hindemith's book
which was a transcription of his Charles Elliot Norton lectures at
Harvard. Hindemith devised a harmonic scheme based on the natural
overtone series, but somehow more related to the interval of the fourth
instead of the triadic harmonies of the 18th and 19th centuries. Given
this approach to harmony, and given the fact that he was a first class
string player, would Hindemith have accepted equal temperment from those
instruments which were capable of just intonation? Does anyone on this
list have any first-hand experience with Hindemith at Yale?

David

David Niethamer
Principal Clarinet, Richmond Symphony
niethamer@-----.edu
dbnclar1@-----.com
http://users.aol.com/dbnclar1/