Temperaments

[Vanderhoofven]

Today I got to tune for the Amadeus Trio for their concert in Joplin.  The
program was a Haydn Trio in C Major (18th century), a Shostakovich Trio in
E Minor (20th century, and a Mendelssohn Trio in C Minor (19th century).  I
tuned the piano in Equal Temperament, which turned out well, because the
Shostakovich was very discordant.  I would think it probably would not have
done well in a historical temperament.

My question:  If you had a free hand to tune any temperament you wanted,
what would be a suitable temperament for this program list?  What
temperament would be best for this, and Why?

In the quest for the Holy Grail of Temperaments,
David

At 09:42 AM 1/17/98 -0600, you wrote:
>List:
>
>For me personally, I like ET.  If the soprano is having a bad throat day
>the piece in G can be moved to Gb without changing the whole character
>of the piece.  There are some advantages to ET.
>
>On the other hand I think some concerts can be enhanced by using some of
>the historical temperaments.  In December, Jeffrey Siegel did a concert
>at SMU of all Beethoven.  I asked him if he would like to use a
>historical temperament like a Youngs.  Since sound only travels at 1020
>feet per second, his "NO" answer was out before my last sounds made it
>to his ear.  
>
>If an artist doesn't want to use a historical temperament for a program
>of all pre-ET music, he certainly won't want to use one for a program
>that includes Beethoven et al AND Ravel & Poulenc.  ET is the only thing
>that will give a reasonable performance of older and contemporary music
>IMHO.  Having said that, if a performer wants some different
>temperament, I want to be the one who can deliver for him/her.
>
>dave
>
>_______________________________________________
>
>David M. Porritt, RPT
>Meadows School of the Arts
>Southern Methodist University
>Dallas, Texas
>_______________________________________________
>
>

David A. Vanderhoofven, RPT
Joplin, Missouri, USA        
e-mail:  dkvander@clandjop.com

web page:  http://www.clandjop.com/~dkvander/
#pianotech page:  http://www.clandjop.com/~dkvander/ircpiano.html