Don wrote: > The problem as I see it is that there is *no* consensus on what a good > temperament is. (snip) > You can say a temperament is *even* or that it *favores* certain intervals. A good temperament has been defined as as one that does not favor any key signatures or any intervals, ie there is a constant rate of increase of beat rates as you go up the scale. So we have agreed on what a good temperament is. Yes, this assumes that we are talking about equal temperament. If we are talking about historical temperaments, then I assume we are still talking about intentionally altering intervals to achieve a certain affect. I would be interested in knowing how tuners who tune historical temperaments deal with the the issue of determining how an oddly scaled piano will affect beat rates of all or just some intervals. I guess I am concerned that this interest in historical temperaments in the last few years could lead to newcomers to our profession deciding that the ability to set an equal temperament by aurally measuring each piano's inharmonicity is not really important. Just invent your own modern historical temperament and off you go. No one will notice. Here's an essay question for the RPT exam: "Describe how your tuning procedures measure the effects of inharmonicity on the beat rates of your temperament sequence." Carl Root, RPT Rockville, MD
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