
Kimiko Ishizaka and MuseScore Team Release Open Well-Tempered Clavier - robertDouglass
http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/kimiko-ishizaka-and-musescore-team-release-open-well-tempered-clavier
======
theOnliest
For loads of other public domain scores/recordings, see the Petrucci music
library at [http://www.imslp.org](http://www.imslp.org). As a music
academic/teacher, IMSLP is invaluable for me. There are also CC-licensed
recordings, though I don't use them much myself.

Much of what they have there are 19th-century editions, which are now of
course in the public domain. You might think that 150+ year-old editions
aren't super-valuable, but many of them are from the Breitkopf & Härtel
collected works editions. These editions are some of the most important works
of 19th-century music scholarship, and were collected, edited, and subscribed
to by important figures. Robert Schumann's works, for example, were all edited
by Clara Schumann (an important composer in her own right), and Johannes
Brahms is listed among the subscribers to the Bach complete works edition
(among many others).

~~~
robertDouglass
IMSLP is great, and these new releases will be hosted there too. In fact, you
can find the 2012 Open Goldberg Variations (similar to this project) on IMSLP.

What IMSLP doesn't have a lot of is new, studio recordings, with the highest
standard of playing and recording engineering. That's what the Open Well-
Tempered Clavier provides!

------
archagon
When I was taking music classes in university, I had a professor who opened my
eyes to the importance of careful editing and scholarship in regards to music
publishing. He was a Bach researcher and harpsichordist, and he had been the
editor of a $30 printed edition of the Well-Tempered Klavier. To explain why
this edition was worth the money when there were so many free versions out
there, he went through each piece and pointed out how many different versions
there were (which to pick?), how the originals got mangled over the centuries
as each editor added their own "corrections", how there were occasional
ambiguities in the score, and so forth. I learned that there was no "the"
Well-Tempered Klavier at all; it was history, and as such, required a trained
historian to piece together in the most authentic way possible.

Unfortunately, most people aren't aware of this. It would be a shame to lose
some of the nuances of the composer's original intent because of, essentially,
propagation error.

I wonder how this edition fares? (I don't have my physical score to compare,
sadly.)

~~~
robertDouglass
Great insight, and very true. This edition is opinionated. The editor, Olivier
Miquel, had some very clear "design goals" in mind. Not like "rewrite Bach",
or anything like that, but he wanted it to be "playable" to people who may
otherwise find the notation quirks of Bach off-putting. Some people will take
issue with these decisions, but it's like you said - there is no one true WTC.

------
smlacy
Fantastic stuff.

I find the choice of MuseScore and it's somewhat proprietary XML-based format
an odd choice for "open" though. For example, I tried to open these scores
using the MuseScore binary that comes with the latest ubuntu, and it was
unable to open the files due to the fact that they're written using the pre-
release 2.0 version of MuseScore.

Personally, I find LilyPond ([http://lilypond.org/](http://lilypond.org/)) a
much better choice for these sorts of "open score" type projects. It's
editable without a GUI, and produces best-of-class output. Think of MuseScore
as "a drawing program for musical scores" and LilyPond as "a language for
expressing scores in a human-readable, generic form"

The Mutopia Project
([http://www.mutopiaproject.org/](http://www.mutopiaproject.org/)) has been
hosting and re-engraving public domain scores for a _very_ long time. All the
source code including scores is on github via
[https://github.com/MutopiaProject/MutopiaProject](https://github.com/MutopiaProject/MutopiaProject)
Although MuseScore has a prettier UI, Mutopia and IMSLP have much larger and
comprehensive collections.

Anyway, Kudos certainly to the recording and performers, they're great, and I
look forward to score engravings that don't rely on the MuseScore software.

~~~
prokoudine
Not sure how lack of full backwards compatibility counts for "somewhat
proprietary" :) MuseScore 2.0 simple has a superset of features over 1.x plus
design changes. One does not easily work around that for users of 1.x.

~~~
smlacy
"somewhat proprietary" = "Where is the specification of the XML format of
MuseScore 2.0 save files"

All I could find was [http://musescore.org/en/handbook/file-
format](http://musescore.org/en/handbook/file-format)

Without a full specification (ideally with parser implementation, example
source code for reading & writing, etc.) the XML is essentially proprietary,
although still human readable.

~~~
prokoudine
I'm not sure if it's wise to expect specification of a file format published
before the actual software using it is actually released. Let's cut the guys
some slack.

~~~
smlacy
Are there specs for the 1.3 version? Can you provide a link?

This specific project was engraved using MuseScore 2.0, and their files cannot
be opened using MuseScore 1.3.

For me, this is contradictory to the notion of "Open".

~~~
MarcSabatella
I don't understand. Older versions of programs cannot open files created by
new versions - that's a simple fact of life, has nothing to do with whether a
program is open or not. I doubt many open programs would limit themselves in
that way.

As for whether the MSCX format is documented or not, of course it is.
MuseScore is fully open source. Every line of code responsible for reading and
writing this format is freely available to you to examine, compile, etc. It
doens't get more open than that.

~~~
smlacy
Source code is not documentation.

The MuseScore XML files do not contain any link to a DTD, XSD or other XML
DOCTYPE metadata, and thus, they are not self-documenting.

By comparison, the MusicXML format is open, because the following
documentation is available: [http://www.musicxml.com/for-
developers/](http://www.musicxml.com/for-developers/) Those zip files contain
a complete and full specification of how to read & write MusicXML files, as
I'm sure the MuseScore developers are familiar with.

I wouldn't consider the MuseScore 1.3 or 2.0 format "open" until there is
available full specification of the XML file formats, and the ZIP-based
container they're usually wrapped in.

Even the MuseScore core developers admit there is no save file documentation
and warn against attempting to parse MuseScore's save file format:
[http://musescore.org/node/13837](http://musescore.org/node/13837)

This is not "open", and I think it's wrong to sell these engravings as "open
scores" in this context.

------
keithpeter
_" Kimiko: My next project, which will be an audio-only project, will be to
record the Chopin Préludes on a Pleyel piano that Chopin himself actually
played."_

Sounds very interesting. I wonder if there will be any attempt to reflect the
performance styles current when Chopin was writing. It would be fun to try to
match the acoustic of the first performances as well perhaps.

One way of recovering some flavour of performance style is through students of
the composer who recorded...

[http://www.charm.rhul.ac.uk/studies/chapters/chap6.html](http://www.charm.rhul.ac.uk/studies/chapters/chap6.html)

~~~
robertDouglass
Indeed. One of the things that Kimiko is looking forward to is the pedal.
Chopin is extremely precise with his pedal marks, to the point where many
performers overlook them almost altogether because they're so demandingly
prescriptive. Kimiko, the purist that she is, wants to perform Chopin's
pedalling as close to exactly like he wanted it as possible, and is looking
forward to hearing what it sounds like on the Pleyel piano, in the hope that
it will explain some of the difficult to understand aspects of his pedalling
markings.

~~~
keithpeter
I shall look out for the kickstarter on this project. Is there a mailing list
or other notification of the Chopin project?

(Mind you, Cortot and Schnabel where not what one might call _purists_ ).

~~~
robertDouglass
Kimiko's mailing list: [http://eepurl.com/-9uzf](http://eepurl.com/-9uzf)

~~~
keithpeter
Subscribed: awaiting the grey listed confirmation email. YC note: they are
using mailchimp

------
dublinben
The Musopen project also has a public domain recording and sheet music for
this, and many other works.

[https://musopen.org/music/1254/johann-sebastian-bach/the-
wel...](https://musopen.org/music/1254/johann-sebastian-bach/the-well-
tempered-clavier-book-i-bwv-870-893/)

~~~
robertDouglass
My opinion - this recording is better.

~~~
benchmark6
Are the recordings in the public domain? Your website says "Some rights
reserved" Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)

Shouldn't it say CC0 per the Kickstarter which says "We are creating a new
digital score and studio recording of J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier (Book
1), and we're placing them in the public domain for everyone to download, own,
share, and use, without any limitations."

~~~
robertDouglass
Yeah, that's a Bandcamp thing. The Licence file in the download clarifies that
it's CC0.

~~~
prokoudine
Given that your case is likely to become high profile, you might want to drop
them a note to add CC0 to the list :)

------
lake99
> So while J.S. Bach didn't invent well-tempered tuning, the 48 was his major,
> if not defining contribution to making it popular, as the 48 was pretty much
> The Music Theory Bible for generations of composers.

Could someone point me to an explanation for this? How does a newbie such as
myself discover the compositional techniques hidden in these?

~~~
archagon
Primarily, the WTC is known for its pristine use of counterpoint, or multiple
independent voices working together to create harmony. This is mainly seen in
the fugues, though the preludes have plenty of it, too.

In addition, Bach used this work to teach his students musical composition,
and many of the pieces exemplify certain compositional techniques. For
example, take a look at prelude #1. The entire piece is based on moving
between chords by changing a single note, effectively demonstrating voice
leading and harmony.

Unfortunately, the WTC was not particularly well known during Bach's time or
in the century after. If I'm remembering my music history correctly, it was
barely even published during his lifetime. Eventually, it was rediscovered by
the Romantic composers and has been famous ever since.

I do not believe Bach actually had any hand in popularizing equal (or well)
temperament. This might just be one of those legends attributed to the great
composer. (We covered this in music history class when I was at university,
but sadly, I don't remember the details.)

~~~
cynicalkane
> The entire piece is based on moving between chords by changing a single note

This statement ceases to be correct for very first chord change of the piece,
which goes from C to Dm7. In fact, it's an incorrect description of the piece
in general.

~~~
archagon
OK, sorry, I haven't listened to it in a while. Make that "a few notes". Or
just boil it down to "voice leading between chords". The point is the same:
it's written with a very particular constraint in mind.

------
drderidder
Bach, my all time favourite. An absolute genius; his work was almost
forgotten, thank goodness it was rediscovered and preserved. Excellent
performance of Prelude and Fugue in C Minor; two pieces I played back in the
day for RCM Grade exams.

~~~
acheron
I don't know about "forgotten"... certainly it was unpopular for quite awhile
but composers at least always knew of him and his work. Bach was one of the
only older composers that Mozart admired, for example.

~~~
drderidder
Well, that's true, the masters didn't forget about Bach even though the public
mostly ignored it. Thankfully Mozart, Beethoven and Mendelssohn helped to keep
an appreciation of Bach's work alive.

------
zaroth
It's beautiful, and thank you so much Kickstarters for funding this. But I
find the well-mic'd breathing highly distracting!! Is it just me, or is there
an odd clicking (definitely not nails on keys) that seems to come and go?

~~~
robertDouglass
I uploaded a photo of the microphone setup:
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertdouglass/16880463591/](https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertdouglass/16880463591/)

All the noises captured were the noises Kimiko made while creating the work.

------
detaro
Interesting that their only "official" release channel seems to be Bandcamp.
I'm pretty sure for the Open Goldberg Variations they had a torrent from the
start.

I'm sure Archive.org and others are going to pick it up quickly.

------
benchmark6
Does anyone else only see "Some rights reserved" Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC
BY 3.0) as the license set? They said it would be released in the public
domain, shouldn't that be noted on their download page?

~~~
benchmark6
FYI seems the download contains the correct license, but not the website.
Might be an error.

~~~
robertDouglass
It's a Bandcamp limitation. I put the license file in the download to clarify
that it's CC0.

------
S4M
Totally OT, but in French the word "clavier" means "keyboard", so I thought it
was about a new kind of keyboard been released. Oh boy was I confused when I
checked the article!

~~~
robertDouglass
That's wonderful! It's not the QWERTY, but the C-C#-D-D# keyboard.

------
ciconia
> For a long time instruments used to be tuned in such intervals between notes
> that transposition (playing a melody in a key different from the originally
> intended one) usually produced a melody that was clearly out of tune.
> Finding the right intervals was an interesting mathematical problem to
> solve, and it was done in the 17th century by Andreas Werckmeister.

This statement is wrong on many counts:

\- The meaning of "out of tune" is culture- and epoque-dependent. For example,
arabic music employs scales with 3/4 tone intervals, which to western ears
might sound "out of tune", but to arab listeners would sound perfectly normal.
In a similar fashion, an equal tempered major triad which would sound "in
tune" to our ears (trained as they are on the now universal equal temperament)
would sound "out of tune" to musicians and listeners in the 16th and 17th
centuries, because they would expect a major third to be pure, i.e. much
narrower than in equal temperament. In short, the meaning of "in tune" and
"out of tune" is a matter of environmental conditioning, not an absolute
truth.

\- Since the middle ages, musicians, instrument makers and theoreticians
developed tuning systems that actually allowed transposition. This is true for
the hexachord system, based upon pythagorean tuning (perfect fifths of 3/2
ratio), employed in the late medieval era. This is also true for meantone
tuning, a system of tuning which tempers the all fifths by a 1/4 of a syntonic
comma in order to arrive at pure thirds (a 5/4 ratio interval). Both
pythagorean tuning and meantone tuning are acyclical systems (that is, a
sequence of 12 fifths does not make 7 octaves), but actually can be considered
forms of equal tuning because all scales would sound the same (at least
theoretically).

\- The problem of transposition becomes an issue mainly on keyboard
instruments, because they split the octave into a fixed number of notes. In
both pythagorean tuning and meantone tuning, there is no enharmonic identity -
C sharp does not equal D flat, etc. This would impose a practical limit on the
possible tonalities that can be used. In the 16th and 17th centuries, a
harpsichord or organ with 12 keys to the octave would typically be tuned
meantone with C sharp, E flat, F sharp, G sharp and B flat. This would make
scales such D flat major, F minor or A flat major quite unpleasant to the ear.
This would also cause one fifth to be larger than pure and therefore unusable
(the "wolf"). One solution would be the addition of more keys, and indeed in
the 16th century many keyboard instruments were produced that included split
sharps, and versions of harpsichords were developed with up to 36 keys to the
octave, allowing the player to reach very remote tonalities.

\- In the late 17th century people are beginning to explore less tempered
versions of meantone, and Werckmeister is indeed the first to publish several
methods of tuning which are "well tempered", i.e. they are cyclical (a cycle
of 12 fifths) and all fifths are "good" (pure or smaller). Werckmeister was
soon followed by other theoreticians, and the issue of well tempered tuning
versus meantone tuning, which was practically universal in Europe back then,
was a matter of hot debate at the time, even as late as the French revolution.
Bach was indeed a proponent of well tempered tuning, but his contemporary the
great organ maker Gottfried Silbermann insisted on employing a form of
meantone tuning in his organs. Mozart, working in the late 18th century, 50
years after Bach, still used 1/6th comma meantone. The French have continued
to employ meantone and meantone-derived tuning well into the 19th century.

\- Well tempered tuning is not a perfect solution to the problem of
transposition. In well tempered tuning each tonality would sound slightly
different. Some tonalities, usually the ones closer to the C in the cycle of
fifths (i.e. C major, G major, F major) would sound purer, and the more remote
ones would usually sound more "spicy", "bitter" or "quirky". In some contexts,
such as the performance of Bach's cantatas, the keyboard (organ) player would
be required to play a transposed part, which would lead him to play in more
remote, and therefore more discordant, tonalities.

\- Equal temperament as a universal tuning is a relatively recent phenomenon,
but one that has completely tainted our ability to listen with open ears to
other ways of tuning keyboard instruments. In fact, singers and players of
instruments with flexible tuning (e.g. violins) are so conditioned by equal
temperament, that they play discordant, equal-tempered thirds instead of pure
thirds, even when unaccompanied. By using equal temperament, we impose a
uniformity of intervals and tonalities which was certainly not there in the
18th century.

\- Bach's "well tempered clavier" != equal temperament. In fact, the beauty of
realising the 48 on a well tempered harpsichord, unlike the equal tempered
modern piano, is that each tonality would have its own character. That is the
prime reason why playing Bach on the piano is wrong.

\- The frontispiece of the "well tempered clavier" has led some to speculate
that in it Bach has encoded his method of tuning. The first was Bradley Lehman
in 2005 [0]. A more recent attempt was made by French harpsichord maker Emile
Jobin [1].

[0] [http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/larips/outline.html](http://www-
personal.umich.edu/~bpl/larips/outline.html) [1] [http://www.clavecin-en-
france.org/spip.php?article52](http://www.clavecin-en-
france.org/spip.php?article52) (in French)

