Historical Temperments

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 3/11/99 12:53:05 PM Central Standard Time,
dkvander@clandjop.com writes:

<< Bill, I appreciate your information about HT's.  Keep writing about what
 you know in a _factual_ manner, without as much emotion involved, and I
 will soak up as much as I can.  >>

Thanks for your interest and reply.  I'm afraid however that Historical
Temperaments have become an emotional issue among all involved: technicians,
pianists and manufacturers.  People have very deep seated beliefs about
certain things and the mere mention of something which challenges a whole set
of lifelong held beliefs is disturbing to many people.

Ed mentioned that he does not believe in "conspiracy theories" and neither do
I.  I do not believe that manufacturers conspire together against anything but
ET, they simply reject the very notion of doing anything else because of a
commonly held set of beliefs, many of which have no basis in fact.

Therefore, don't hold your breath waiting for the next famous concert pianist
to put out a fresh new recording of classical or other music where a different
temperament is used.  Virtually everyone in control of these matters has a
preconceived opinion about such a thing ranging from "unheard of", "risky",
"impractical" to "crazy" or even "unethical".

What so many people who think this way don't realize is that if a piano were
tuned in a different way without their knowledge, they would never even be
aware of the fact.  The resistance to the idea is purely psychological.  If
they only knew how many performances and recordings have occurred not in ET
but in Reverse Well and yet they have still been accepted as "normal", they
would be astonished.

Even the mention of "Reverse Well" sparks heated emotion.  Most people in this
business don't know what it is even though they may be doing it every day and
truly believe that what they are doing is ET.  To inform someone of this
easily creates a strongly emotional and defensive reaction.

I'm glad that you have seen the light and hope that you can make the best of
it in your career as I have.  You mention in your P.S. that you may have a
performance opportunity coming up.  In such an instance, I would probably use
the Equal Beating Victorian Temperament that I have worked up over that past 8
years and which was so successful in Providence.

No one to my knowledge has ever been able to follow my aural tuning
instructions for it even though they seem simple, straightforward and naturel
to me.  The best I can do is provide a program tuning where the wound strings
are subject to error and must be carefully aurally verified and corrected.

Jim Coleman recently commented that he used my program for a Steinway L and
really liked it.  I have one for a Steinway D too but it is only in my SAT and
I would have to copy it out by hand since I have no other way.  Previously
when you asked for this information, I was too pressed for time to get to it
but if you could use it now, I may have the time.  I can also provide a
partial program for C3 to C5 for example where you would create your own
octaves to your own or the artist's taste.

What kind of piano will you be using?

Sincerely,
Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin