Thought Police - was HT's -Reply

[Steve Pearson]

It's hard to believe I'm doing this.  Surely, too much has already been said
in the HT / ET wars. But alas, I can't resist.  I think to meself, "Self", I say, "
Self, there are few techs, musicians or otherwise who love a good HT
better than I do."   But there is something in the whole idea of dragging
this out over months, with charred bodies strewing the pathway, that is
too odd. Too narrow. Too mean.  There is implicit in the derisive
statements about ET that it is somehow invalid; not a "real" tuning.  If HT is
good, then ET is bad.  Or, the oft expressed feeling that ET is the last
improvement in the ever upward evolution of tuning theory, so it is
therefor the best.  Shoot, some are even going back to
Pythagoras-on-steroids in a perfect fifths temperament, which has
beating thirds that rival hummingbird wings.  I personally think Bach
sounds better in a well tempered tuning, but I think less is lost by playing it
on a piano in ET, than playing Brahms on the same piano in Werckmeister
III.  Bartok Roumanian Dances sound great in meantone...really, you
should try it, but Shostakovich certainly doesn't.  Subjective judgements
aside, why do the egos seem to be so fragile, why the opinions so
jealously guarded?  I think this is why;  We aren't talking tuning here,
were talking honor, and the defense thereof.  We are talking emotional
baggage, all tied up with ugly little bows with our names on them.  We are
also talking about something subtle enough to  performing musicians, that
they often miss its presence in the tuning.  Can they / we tell the
difference?  Sometimes yes, sometimes no.  Sometimes, we regard
different as good, sometimes bad.  Usually it is just different.  Harpsichord
works played on piano, Organ works, transcribed for the piano, or the
orchestra are transformed  into very different musics.  Is it kosher or
kitsch?    Forgive me for waxing philosophical, but it seems that
whenever opinion - read emotion - enters in, reason flies.  An emotional
bias creates an intellectual blindspot.  Heck, if someone wants to tune in
pure minor thirds, and they can hide the comma, so as not to make your
teeth ache, let 'em.  
"If it sounds good, it is good"  - Duke Ellington