The arrangement of notes on today’s piano was once regarded as a crime against God. The ancient Greeks saw the relationship between the notes of the musical scale as a key to the nature of the heavens. This was referred to as the Music of the Spheres. They regarded music in terms of mathematical relationships that they called ratios. The standard Pythagorean tuning was based on perfect fifths, a ratio of two to three. As western music evolved, the early keyboards were tuned to consistently produce sounds corresponding to one single formula. When combining certain tones the sound would be ragged. In medieval times, musicians started to temper or alter the tunings differently than the old ways. But this was a problem because the fifth was tempered or impure which was an abomination for the ecclesiastical establishment of the time. The penalty was torture and death at the stake. Tempering the tuning allows a musical pattern to be duplicated and this produces a relationship between tones that is uniform and consistent. The modern tuning system is known as equal temperament and it has produced some of the most magnificent and breathtaking music ever written. Here is a sample:
Composer: Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin
Composition: Prelude No 16 in B Flat minor, Opus 28
Pianist: Brian Ganz
Composition: Prelude No 16 in B Flat minor, Opus 28
Pianist: Brian Ganz
Actor: Michael C. Montero
Audio Visuals: Samuel G. Montero
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