Bach & Music as “Sounding Number”
I am a church organist, and I studied both organ and piano at college. But it was not until I had graduated from college that I first tried a harpsichord. The harpsichord is a different creature altogether: instead of striking its strings with hammers, as a piano does, the harpsichord plucks its strings with a series of hooks. This gives it its characteristic tinny, plinking sound.
And the harpsichord that I first tried at a professor’s home was unusual in another way. It was tuned according to a sixteenth-century system that is called “meantone temperament.” Now, on a typical modern piano, all the chords that one might choose to play—C major, E major, and so on—are equally “in tune” (or equally “out of tune,” as I shall explain). But on a meantone instrument, some chords are more in tune than others; a D major chord, for example, will sound brilliantly clear and resonant, while more remote chords, like C-sharp major, will sound awful. I still remember my astonishment and delight when I played an A major chord on that harpsichord. It was so surprisingly rich, so delicious-sounding! It made me feel as though I had never really heard a chord that was in tune before. For a few minutes, I was content just to sit at the instrument, playing that single chord over and over again, savoring the luscious sound.
Hearing a harmony as “in tune” or “consonant” involves perceiving mathematical ratios, whether one realizes it consciously or not. This insight dates at least as far back as the Greek philosopher, Pythagoras, in the sixth century BC. According to legend, Pythagoras was passing by a blacksmith’s forge and heard several different hammers pounding away at the same time. He noticed that when certain hammers rang out simultaneously, the sound was pleasant and concordant. He investigated why this should be and found that the hammers that sounded pleasingly together had weights that formed simple mathematical ratios: 2:1, 3:2, 4:3, and so on.
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Christopher Hoyt is the organist/choirmaster at Good Shepherd Church in Tyler, Texas, and teaches Sacred Music at Cranmer Theological House (Reformed Episcopal) in Dallas. He was general editor of the hymnal, The Book of Common Praise/Magnify the Lord (2017) and is a composer of hymns and other church music (hoytcomposer.com).
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