Ed wrote:
<Even in blind tests, technicians themselves, who know better than anyone
else the sound of ET, favor a non-ET tuning. Have we somehow gone full
circle and find ourselves tuning in equal when we really prefer the sound of
non?
How did Bill Bremmer's tuning end up the favored temperament when compared
to
the ET? (Rhode Island convention? Jon Page was there, maybe he can supply
the
dates.)>
I can supply some background that may be helpful in this regard. One of my
jobs on the Institute that year was to get the pianos to the Temperament
Festival. We had very few to choose from and because of his special
relationship with Walter Piano, Bill used a new Walter grand. Everyone else
had a used piano of varying qualities including one poor Steinway that the
tuner broke a string on the day of the Festival. No attempt was made to make
this a fair and equal contest or competition. The idea was to expose as many
possible to a variety (Festival) of Temperaments. Bill also tuned his piano
more than anyone else because I got complaints from the exhibit hall about
it.
I am _not_ trying to criticize Bill's work, I just don't believe it was a
fair venue for comparison. Ed's class on non equal temperaments opened my
eyes to all the possibilities in tuning that I had previously ignored. I
still use them to this day. I thought Bill's piano sounded great but from
behind the scenes, it really would be unfair to use this as an example of a
"tune-off".
Respectfully,
DP
Dale Probst,
Registered Piano Technician
Midwestern State University
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