sullivan@harvard.UUCP (John Sullivan) (05/09/84)
If an instrument is actually well-tempered, then it is true that in any given key, some notes will be flat and some sharp (compared to *just* intonation), but the relations are the same no matter what key you play in. Every half step corresponds to exactly a ratio of the twelfth root of two, so every key sounds exactly the same. Another interesting thing to note about the different sounds claimed for different keys is that the standard tuning has shifted up over the centuries. Thus Mozart when writing bright, cheerful things in the "bright, cheerful" key of D, was really writing in what is now Db (C#). I feel he probably wrote in D because it is easier for the string players, not because of any difference in sound. John M. Sullivan ...!decvax!wjh12!harvard!sullivan