Saddest O of the Week

[Frank Weston]

Ed, 

It's going to take a lot more than a music reviewer to educate the unwashed
masses as to the merits of historical temeraments.  Don't get me wrong, I
would love for the revolution to come, but from my experience, even the
most sophisticated of musicians are slow to appreciate the advantages, and
the average tuning customer responds with a blank stare.  Worse still, if a
customer learns about historical tuning and wants to try it, he is usually
confronted by a tuner who quashes the idea.  

If historical tunings gain in popularity, it will be because they are sold
by tuners working to follow up on interest generated by newspaper articles
and recordings such as your CD.  It is to the tuners advantage to be able
to respond to this interest.  Lets face it, historical temperaments are
another product to offer the customer.  If a tuner has a full repertoire of
temperaments, he has just that much more to sell, and is that much more
competitive.  

The only reason I see for tuners to resist this logic is that most have
spent years learning to aurally tune a decent equivalent to ET, and see no
reason to spend years to learn other temperaments for which they may have
little use.  With the advent of computerized VTDs, this argument goes out
the window.  Anyone with a VTD, who can tune ET, can, with a day or two of
experimentation tune just about any other temperament.  As you point out,
Jorgensen's book gives all the info needed.

So,  the bad news is that historical temperaments won't get much play (pun
intended) unless tuners take an active interest.  The good news is that it
is to the tuners' advantage to encourage an increased interest in
historical temperaments,  and, even better news, in this day and age, it's
easy enough to learn to tune them.

Frank Weston
----------
> From: A440A <A440A@aol.com>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Re:  Re: Saddest O of the Week
> Date: Friday, January 16, 1998 6:23 PM
> 
> Greetings, 
> I said, 
> <<>(hope the Village Voice article this week doesn't make any of y'all's
lives
> >more complicated, but we better all start dusting off our Jorgensen!  
> 
> Conrad asks:
> >Which village would that be, and/or where can one access said article?
> 
>     The "Village Voice" is a New York City publication.  It was one of
the
> first alternative newspapers, but is now its own institution.   If there
is a
> bookstore, or newstand that carries a lot of variety, you may find it
there.  
>     Kyle Gann, the reviewer who writes in the "Voice" is sold on
temperaments,
> and he, like myself, sees a coming revolution in tuning.  We, as tuners,
need
> to be the agents of this change.   
> Regards, 
> Ed Foote