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From: greg@olivej.UUCP (Greg Paley)
Newsgroups: net.music,net.music.classical
Subject: Re: Composers write in Dflat or Fsharp to show off?
Message-ID: <176@olivej.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 9-May-84 13:00:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: olivej.176
Posted: Wed May  9 13:00:33 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 12-May-84 09:34:32 EDT
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The subject of keys in Wolf songs brings up two questions to which
I don't have answers, but with regard to which I'd be interested
in seeing further discussion:

	(1) Accepted pitch today vs. at the time the music is
	    written.  I have heard frequently that our standard
            440 A (although many orchestras tune higher) is
            nearly a half step higher than in the 19th Century.
            Is this true?  If so, at what time did the shift take
            place?  If it is true, it means that we are never
            hearing the intended "tonal color" implied by the
            original keys.

	(2) Transposition of songs.  Although frowned on in opera
	    (but nonetheless done on occasion) this is standard
	    practice in the song literature.  Most "original key"
	    editions of Wolf, Schubert, Brahms, Schumann, etc.
	    are for "high voice" - tenor or soprano.  Those 
	    written either in the bass clef (Wolf's "Harfenspieler"
	    and Michelangelo Lieder, Brahms "Four Serious Songs)
	    or in keys which would be comfortably negotiable by
	    bass/baritone/mezzo-soprano/contralto are the
	    exception rather than the rule.  On the other hand,
	    many of the century's great song interpreters
	    (Fischer-Dieskau, Janet Baker, Christa Ludwig, Hans
	    Hotter, just for a few examples) are lower voices.
	    At a guess, 75 % of the rep of these singers is
	    done in keys other than the "original" published
	    ones.  Schwarzkopf herself, though she continued to
	    bill herself as a soprano, performed many of her
	    songs in transposed keys later in her career.

These are points I've frequently thought about in performing
songs myself, and have found difficulty coming to clear-cut
decisions.

	- Greg Paley