Post by Zazie-la-pestesol b
il La sarà stato a 415, dunque un semitono più basso del 440
Di fatto per quanto riguarda Bach esisteva una differenza fra il Chorton e
il Kammer ton.
a questo proposito inoltro un breve articolo (parte del lungo articolo del
Grove dedicato alla questione - qui solo la parte riguardante la Germania e
Bach) che forse può essere di qualche interesse
(iii) Germany.
The detailed pitch information in Praetorius's De organographia of 1618 is
pivotal, looking back on the practices of the end of the 16th century and
forward to the situation of German musicians confronted with the arrival of
the new French orchestral instruments in the later 17th. But (although
Praetorius was not confused) his terminology is confusing. He called his
reference pitch CammerThon (which he used to mean .secular instrumental
pitch. at A+1), but its frequency was quite different from that of 18th-
century Cammerton. Praetorius used ChorThon to mean .church organ pitch..
Earlier this pitch had been a tone lower than his CammerThon, thus A.1, and
in certain places, he said, it still was. But ChorThon was in process of
changing in Praetorius's day. He explained that organs had gradually risen
in pitch .about a tone. until they too were at CammerThon. This is why
Praetorius was inconsistent in his meaning of the term ChorThon, sometimes
equating it to CammerThon and sometimes making it a major 2nd below it.
(Fortunately, he reserved CammerThon as his unmoving reference, although he
gave it other names as well, like rechte Thon and Cornettenthon.) Praetorius
described with approval the situation in Prague: Normal modern pitch, to
which nearly all of our organs are now tuned, is there called CammerThon .
ChorThon, however, which is a whole tone lower, is used only in the
churches, primarily for the sake of the singers . as it allows their voices
to bear up longer, and saves them from becoming husky from working at high
pitch.
Evidence from the Habsburg lands confirms his description, ChorThon being
the usual term for a pitch a 2nd below A+1 (Zinck-Thon or Cornet-Ton) until
at least the time of Janowka (Prague, 1701; see §I, 2(v) below). Praetorius
also appears to have been describing a corollary to the system used in
northern Italy, in which the organist transposed down a whole step (to tuono
corista or A.1) from a high instrumental pitch (A+1) for the sake of the
singers. The parallel is underlined by Praetorius's use of the phrase
.Chöristen- oder ChorThon..
Another aspect of Praetorius's pitch information that has led to confusion
is his scale diagram of a set of organ pipes, or Pfeifflin zur Chormass,
whose principal purpose, he explained, was to indicate the pitch level of
his CammerThon. This diagram has been the subject of considerable debate,
but it is now generally agreed that it, like other indications (including
extant original wind instruments of the period), shows a level at A+1
(Myers, A1997, and Koster, D forthcoming). Praetorius's CammerThon was thus
parallel to the most common pitch in Italy at the same time, mezzo punto.
In the latter part of the 17th century developments in France inspired a
revolution in the instrumentarium in Germany. The new designs of woodwinds
were tuned a tone or more below most German organs. For various practical
reasons, neither the organs nor the woodwinds could adapt to each other's
pitch for a period of several generations. As secular instrumental music
gradually came to dominate music making, however, so did its pitch. Thus
Praetorius's CammerThon effectively swapped its meaning with that of Chorton
(which continued to mean .church organ pitch.). Jakob Adlung in 1768
referred to this confusion, writing that .organs are tuned to Chorton, as it
is now called, which is 1 or 1½ tones higher than Cammerton. Formerly it was
the reverse, and Cammerton was higher than Chorton; organs were tuned to
what was then called Cammerton.. Thus the approximate frequencies of
established German pitch standards (A+1 and A.1) were not altered by the
musical revolution caused by the arrival of French orchestral instruments,
but their names were interchanged.
In the new configuration, transposition became necessary when organs played
with other instruments. Vocal parts could be notated at either standard. In
some cases, it was simpler (as for Bach at Weimar) to notate the voices with
the organ, since the strings were still tuned high. As time went on, it
became more common to write voice and string parts at the new low Cammerton
(as Bach did at Leipzig), leaving only the organ and the brass (the latter
representing a stronghold of tradition) at Chorton.
The older instruments in the German 17th-century tradition did not vanish
immediately. The chorist-Fagott or deutsche Fagott (i.e. the curtal) long
continued its traditional role in providing discrete accompaniment to
choirs, and traditional shawms were played well into the 18th century.
These instruments were pitched at Praetorius's old high CammerThon at A+1.
But since the word Cammerton was now associated with a low pitch, .deutsche.
(e.g. deutsche Schalmey) gradually developed a secondary connotation as an
indication of instruments at high pitch. Just as the term .French. before an
instrument's name (französische Schalmei), or the use of the French name
itself (Hautbois) was a sign of an instrument in Cammerton, the word
.deutsche. was used to indicate an instrument at A+1 (see Shawm, §4).
We are fortunate in having the original frequencies of at least 36 German
organs whose pitch standard was also identified by name: There are 13
examples of Cornet-Ton within a narrow and specific range, averaging a' =
463. This level agrees well with the pitch of surviving cornetts.
There are 11 examples of Chorton, as high as a' = 487 and as low as a' = 437
(i.e. A+0, A+1, A+2). They average, however, a' = 467. There are two
examples of Chormass at a' = 489 and a' = 466. (Chormass is a term
frequently encountered in the 17th century and less in the 18th; it was
evidently synonymous with Chorton). Cammerton (ten examples) is also
consistent and averages a' = 416. This level compares well with woodwind
pitch between 1680 and 1770.
From this it can be seen that Chorton in the 18th century could have been
any pitch from A+0 to A+2. 18th-century Cornet-Ton, by contrast, was
relatively specific and consistent in frequency. Cornetts were commonly used
as a reference for pitch frequency in Italy, Germany and the Habsburg lands.
Cornetts made in Germany in the 16th and 17th centuries range in pitch from
a' = 450 to a' = 480, but most are close to a' = 465.
Praetorius used CammerThon and Cornettenthon synonymously in the early 17th
century. But while the names CammerThon and ChorThon traded places between
the 17th and 18th centuries, Cornet-Ton (Cornettenthon) remained at the same
level, since cornetts did not change in pitch from the 16th to the 18th
centuries. Cornet-Ton, then, was equivalent to the early 17th-century
CammerThon, but by the 18th century it had become a specific kind of
Chorton. The words Cornet-Ton and Chorton sounded so similar, and the
concepts they denoted overlapped so closely, that it would be surprising if
they had not sometimes been confused. Chorton was variously described as
different from, lower than, and equal to Cornet-ton. Because Chorton was a
general concept rather than a specific frequency, there are a number of
references to a .gewöhnlichen (ordinairen) Chortone. and .hohe Chortone..
The .gewöhnlichen. was a whole-tone above Cammerton (which was A.1). Hohe
Chorton was found in the extreme north of Germany: Buxtehude's organ at the
Marienkirche, Lübeck, was in hoch-Chorton and pitched at A+2. About a third
of the surviving organs by Arp Schnitger are at A+2 (the others are at A+1).
Organs at A+2 were used to accompany congregational singing in churches that
did not use other instruments.
There were those who preferred the sound of organs at Chorton (in its
general sense) over Cammerton. But the most important reason for making
high-pitched organs was the expense: a lower pitch required extra pipes at
the bottom of each stop, and being the longest pipes they used the most tin.
The new organ built in Bach's Thomaskirche in Leipzig in 1773 was still at
Chorton.
By the beginning of the 19th century most organs were built in Kammerton (as
it was then usually called), although in Saxony in the early 19th century an
organ pitch of A+1 was still common. Cammerton was associated with secular
music; in the 18th century it was the usual pitch of instruments other than
the organ and brass. Eventually many organs adopted Cammerton, which was
more convenient when playing with other instruments. As noted above, nine
18th-century German organs at Cammerton survive, all at A.1 (which we can
assume represented its normal frequency). There were other, lower species of
Cammerton: the family of tief-Cammertons, including Opera-Ton and
französischer Thon. These levels were all approximately a minor 3rd below
A+1 and are thus difficult to keep distinct. The existence of ton de la
chambre in France at A.1½ was probably the root cause of the confusion,
since this frequency fell between the levels at A.1 and A.2 that were
transposable on most German organ keyboards. The Cammerton levels at A.2 and
A.1½, being common French pitches, probably came in when the first French
woodwinds arrived in the 1680s. But A.1 must also have been current by the
1690s, as a stop in the Jacobikirche organ, Hamburg (Schnitger, 1693), was
at a' = 408, a minor 3rd below the rest of the organ at a' = 489.
Praetorius documented the use of a pitch a minor 3rd below his CammerThon
(at A+1) that was used, he said, .a great deal in different Catholic chapels
in Germany.. So the level at A.2 was not a complete innovation in Germany
with the arrival of French instruments. Indications for tief-Cammerton in
wind parts disappear after the mid-1720s, though German woodwinds were still
made at A.2 until at least 1770.
The parts and occasionally the scores to German music of the early 18th
century (such as works for organ and other instruments) that involved the
simultaneous use of two and sometimes three different pitch standards were
normally notated in different keys. In transposing, composers were obliged
to consider a number of interrelated practical factors: the technical
effects on different kinds of performers, changes of sonority, key and its
relation to affect, and temperament. The effect of transposition on voices
was a primary consideration. The tone qualities of the different vocal
registers were consciously distinguished until the Classical period, and
breaks from chest to head voice, which generally occur at specific
frequencies, were avoided. Register placement is obviously shifted by
transposition. Transposition could also turn a high tenor part into one for
falsettist (countertenor) by changing its range.
Although string instruments were also sensitive to changes of pitch and key,
some or all the individual strings were regularly retuned as much as a whole
step up and down in the 18th century; examples are found in works by Biber,
Kuhnau, Bach and Mozart. Many string instruments then in use had been made
in an earlier period when standard instrumental pitch was A+1; they were
often tuned up to Cornet-ton in the early 18th century.
When parts were not in the appropriate key, organists were expected to
transpose at sight. Woodwinds were less flexible. Their fingering system
limited them to keys with no more than four sharps or flats, and each
tonality had an associated character, technique and intonation. Some
woodwinds like the traverso and hautbois d'amour were specialists in sharp
keys, while others like the recorder and bassoon tended towards flats.
Temperament was a consideration for the fixed-pitch instruments such as
keyboards and lute; melody instruments made ad hoc tuning adjustments as
needed. Transpositions of a semitone were impractical in meantone, but when
the intervals involved were the major 2nd and minor 3rd, and a so-called
.regular. meantone was used (i.e. one in which all the 5ths but one were
tuned the same), intervals were virtually identical in standard tonalities.
(iv) J.S. Bach.
Throughout his career, Bach worked with instruments at Cornet-ton (A+1) and
various levels of Cammerton, although his method of notating their parts
was different in each of the places he worked. The most complex situation
was at Weimar. The organ in the court chapel where Bach was Konzertmeister
was documented as in .Cornet Thon.. During the first year he wrote cantatas,
Bach wrote parts for a single .Oboe. notated a major 2nd above the other
parts (organ, voices and strings). The strings must therefore have been
tuned up to Cornet-ton, and the .Oboe. must have sounded a tone below the
organ (and therefore at the higher level of Cammerton, A-1). But the .Oboe.
disappeared at the end of 1714, to be replaced by an instrument Bach
consistently called an .Hautbois., whose parts now differed a minor 3rd from
the organ and strings. From this time, Bach also notated certain other
instruments at the interval of a minor 3rd, like the .Basson. and .Flaut.
(recorder). Since the organ stayed at A+1, these instruments must have been
at tief-Cammerton, or A.2. All the remaining works written for the Weimar
chapel show this relationship.
The parts to Bach's music written at Cöthen, on the other hand, are in a
single key; presumably all the instruments were at the same pitch. But there
is reason to think the prevailing pitch at Cöthen was a form of
tief-Cammerton, either A.1½ or A.2. The voice ranges of cantatas written
there are unusually high, and when he used material from Cöthen later at
Leipzig, Bach sometimes performed it at .tief-Cammerthon.. The problematic
trumpet part to the second Brandenburg concerto would be significantly
easier on an instrument at tief-Cammerton instead of A.1.
At Leipzig, the performing materials for most of Bach's vocal works indicate
that the strings, voices and woodwinds were at Cammerton and the organ and
brass were a major 2nd higher. Bach's predecessor, Johann Kuhnau, had
specified in 1717 that the pitch of the organs at the Thomas- and
Nicolaikirchen was Cornet-ton. But Kuhnau had used figural instruments at
intervals of both a 2nd and a minor 3rd below Cornet-ton, .depending., he
said, .on which is most convenient. (i.e. which pitch would yield mutually
satisfying keys). He had woodwinds available, in other words, at both normal
Cammerton and at tief-Cammerton. Since tonalities with open strings were
preferable on the string instruments, and appropriate tonalities were
critical for the unkeyed woodwinds, the presence of woodwinds tuned a
semitone apart was extremely practical: it offered Kuhnau a choice of more
combinations of keys in which to compose.
During Bach's first year and a half at Leipzig, he took advantage of this
option by writing several cantatas at tief-Cammerton: nos.22, 23, 63 and
194, and also the first version of the Magnificat. (Cantatas nos.22 and 23
were his trial pieces and were performed together; Cantata no.63 had been
conceived some years earlier, probably for performance at tief-Cammerton,
and in Leipzig was performed on the same day as the Magnificat . which, with
Cantata no.194, had antecedents in Cöthen.) The last known date that Bach
used the tief-Cammerton option with his regular winds was 4 June 1724. He
revised the Magnificat for a performance in the 1730s, transposing it from E
to D, probably because tief-Cammerton woodwinds were no longer available.
Questions of notation and transposition caused by pitch differences affect
the following works by Bach: BWV12, 18, 21, 22, 23, 31, 63, 70a, 71, 80a,
106, 131, 132, 147a, 150, 152, 155, 161, 162, 172, 182, 185, 186a, 194, 199,
208 and 243a. Most but not all these questions are addressed by the Neue
Bach-Ausgabe (for a detailed discussion, see Haynes, A1995).