Historical tuning

[Billbrpt]

In a message dated 98-02-28 01:20:49 EST, you write:

<< I actually get all pure 5ths in my system and I proved it by using the
6th-10th 
 test in each case. >>

   Just as with octaves, there is more than one set of audible coincident
partials.  You chose the lower set to be pure, the upper set is still
tempered.  If you choose the upper set to pure, the lower set will be wide.
When using this approach, it will be natural for all of your 5ths to be wide
in the outer octaves.  Your 4ths will also start to beat multiple times per
second.  Your 3rds and other RBI's will all beat very rapidly.  If you are
playing music of the late Romantic era such as Chopin or Debussy, it might
well be enhanced with this temperament.  However, close harmony in the simple
keys with earlier music or any music written in these keys will sound
unusually strained, especially on a small ordinary piano.  In my view, this is
a temperament variation which is only appropriate for a concert grand used in
a big, live hall.

   << I think pure 5ths half way around the circle is pretty close to what you
refer to as Reverse Well. Is that true?  >>

     Pure 5ths half way around the cycle is what many WT's have but they are
pricipally among the black key 5ths.  If you put them mostly among the white
keys, then temper the 5ths among the black keys a little more than in ET, you
will produce a temperament which is the exact inverse of a WT and is in direct
opposition to the Rules of WT.  This has been called and is known as "Reverse-
Well".  In my experience and observation, it is a very widespead and common
error among contemporary tuners, especially those who only practice aural
tuning.

     John Travis identified this tendency in his book, "Let's Tune Up".  He
suggested that a temperament sequence begin on a black key such as F# or C#
to remedy this problem.  While his theory doesn't make sense in a purely
technical manner of thinking,  he may well have been right that a tuner "tends
to err towards the just 5th" and therefore, if the temperament sequence begins
among the black keys, the end result will be a more musical tuning even though
it will not be entirely equal.

     I have been truly confounded on many occasions to find a RW tuned by an
RPT, even by some who have been and served as CTE's.  Many of these
individuals claim to know about HT's but dismiss them as something which is
not considered normal or usual practice.  If they only knew what effect the
consistent error in their tuning really has on the piano's sound and on the
music!  They firmly believe however in ET and that what they are doing is ET.
If they were to study and use the HT's more often, they could gain the
sensitivity to produce an actual ET.  If they did the latter however, they
might surely see the futility in ET and might go on to be faithful
practitioners of the HT's as I am.

     So for the present, we remain with large majority of technicians
believing in something that is really only acheived by a very few.  We also
remain with a large majority which condemns and ridicules that of which it has
no true knowledge or experience but of which it habitually practices a
backwards version believing firmly that it is ET.  To me, this sounds a lot
like bigotry.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin