How much were 16th and 17th century composers trying to avoid dissonance in their compositions, and how much was dissonance an essential part of the music? I notice that when Leonhardt plays Byrd's Fantasie on ut re mi fa sol la, on the recording he made for Alpha, the tuning minimises dissonances -- contrast Glen Wilson and Davitt Moroney in the same music. Obviously meantone tuning is more dissonant, but they were trying to find smoother alternatives at the time I think, which presumably [...]
discussion: Talk classical
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