Bill writes:
>I'm afraid however that Historical
>>Temperaments have become an emotional issue among all involved: technicians,
>>pianists and manufacturers.
Greetings,
The subject can draw emotional extremes out into the open, and we all see
the resultant volcanos. However, somewhere between the "ONLY ET" and the
"NEVER ET" proponents, there is this large mass of us more centrally defined
folks. There is an ongoing interest, and growing use in this large middle
group. This is where things come from, and this is where the crusading
technician can effect the most change, ( or die in the tall weeds........)
The working technician that wants to begin introducing choice in the
customers tuning gets to enjoy life with the additional risks and rewards.
Mistakes can be made and triumphs be savored. I had one this morning,
involving a redhead and a Yamaha,.. but I digress.
Historically, the manipulation of emotions was the aim of much unequal
tuning. It is hardly surprising that even today, the subject arrives already
equipped with emotional baggage. As long as nobody takes it personally, a
lot can be accomplished by comparing sounds. I have just gotten Jim C's
original temperament in an email, put it into my SAT III (2 minute job), and
applied it to a 1933 Chickering here at home. I am going to retune it again
and listen. This is magic, that many people can hear another's musical
tastes, on a repeatable basis. This provides good material for debate and
should allow a temperament revival, the likes of which the world has never
seen. Temperaments and internet, hmm...
This is all part of it.
"Vive la differ, once".
Regards,
Ed
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC