Historical Documentation of Reverse Well

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

Dear List,

A colleague recently sent me the quote below that shows that as tuning was 
evolving toward a more widespread use of ET, it was also found to be a near 
impossibility.  Although, it was not called, "Reverse Well" in this quote, 
the observation is clearly the same as I have been making for years.

It is easy to dismiss any and all other kinds of temperament ideas in favor 
of the "universal" one, the "ultimate compromise", the "neutral palette", 
(put in your own favorite argument), etc.  Then, say to yourself and everyone 
else that small errors do no make any difference, just as long as it seems 
"kinda, sorta, pretty even" (as our retired local symphony conductor used to 
say).

Would or could these variances result in a true Victorian style temperament?  
I think they could just as easily as a backwards version of it.  And that is 
why I think it is important to learn how to tune a Victorian temperament 
properly, even if you never plan to use it.  I find Reverse Well on just 
about every piano I am going to tune or test just out of curiosity.  Recently 
I found it on an electronic keyboard.  That was the real puzzler.

Why? How could the programmer have made a cumulative set of errors that would 
result in a temperament that runs 180 degrees contrary to virtually all music 
which will be played on it?  Just think about it.  As technicians we have all 
been taught to believe and trust in ET and reject automatically any notion of 
tuning anything else but in reality, most of us may have tuned and have 
listened to and enjoyed moreover, music from pianos tuned by ourselves and 
others that is a backwards version of a Victorian Temperament and have never 
realized it.

<< In 1832 Jean Jousse wrote, concerning equal versus non-equal temps: "Each 
of these temperaments has its advantages and disadvantages.  The advantage 
obtained by the equal temperament is that every interval and chord is 
produced so near perfection that none of them sound perceptibly imperfect; 
but it has the following disadvantages:  first, that it cannot be obtained in 
a strict sense, as may be proved, not only mathematically, but also by daily 
experience; therefore the best equally tempered instruments are still 
unequally tempered, and, what is worse, oftentimes in the wrong places.">>

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin