e.t. comment for your response

[Anne Beetem]

So, Stephen, should we forward Susan's comments to the harpsichord list?  As
I gather up all my facts for Alexsandr, should I send the forthcoming
treatise to both lists?  

  Anne


At 04:50 PM 12/4/97 -0800, you wrote:
>Stephen Birkett asks:
>>Any comments from you piano tuner guys and gals? Don't you all tune 
>>perfect ET?
>>
>>Stephen
>
>Hi, Steven --
>
>Nothing in life is perfect, as Frank Weston proves quickly enough. As Horace
>points out, mathematical accuracy, while reflecting a certain competence, is
>not the aim of the exercise. 
>
>I think the great majority of us (those of us who have cut our teeth) tune a
>temperament equal _enough_ for all reasonable purposes, and possibly too
>equal for some. The few times I've tested a temperament that someone else
>has done using a method other than my own, it was essentially
>indistinguishable by my normal tests.
>
>Whether this is a good thing is open to debate, for sure. It does provide
>for a tuning of a certain minimum quality. You can't go _too far wrong_ with
>an equal temperament, and it would be _very_ easy to do something really bad
>while trying to be "musical" when you didn't know what that meant. 
>
>I and a roomful of other people had a very interesting experience at Jim
>Coleman, Sr.'s recent tuneoff in Washington. It was a Jim vs. Jim tuneoff,
>with a pure 5ths temperament on one piano, and a "more conventional tuning"
>on the other. A whole roomful of tuners (apparently) didn't realize that the
>second piano was tuned to a well temperament, even when they were carefully
>listening for differences in tuning. I know he fooled me. 
>
>So, what's a cent here or there? Why are we so fussy about being able to
>tune so very equally? In my opinion, the quality of the tuning will emerge
>much more strongly from the choice of octave stretch and from the timbre of
>the unisons. (and those _are_ musical qualities.)
>
>So, guys and gals, does anyone think that some of our temperaments are more
>equal than others?
>
>Susan
>
>Susan Kline
>P.O. Box 1651
>Philomath, OR 97370
>skline@proaxis.com
>
>"Cheer up! Things may be getting worse at a slower rate."
>			-- Ashleigh Brilliant
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


Anne Beetem
Harpsichords & Historic Pianos
2070 Bingham Ct.
Reston, VA  20191
abeetem@wizard.net