No EBVT at Convention

[Conrad Hoffsommer]

Billbrpt,

At 19:55 03/27/2000 EST, you wrote:

><< Might I suggest you take some time to think about the root causes of why
> people seem to be against your ideas.  >>

>Not everyone is, of course, Bryan and I'm really sorry, as I said,  that you 
>won't get the benefit of it. 


Believe it or not, Bill, I would also have liked to have heard your HVLP
tuning. 

>  I can do it better than any of them and I didn't mind 
>proving it at all.

Sounds like another tuneoff challenge to me.
You have proved some other things, however.


>Now of course, he is entitled to his opinion and to say whatever he wants 
>just as you and I are.  But Mr. Foote sets himself up as some kind of leader 
>of the HT practice. 

...and you don't?????  I think we have a turf war here, folks.  At least Mr
Foote has a CD out there which has been and is attracting international
attention.  I believe I asked you previously for the label and number of
_yours_?


>  The problem is that the 
>requirements for that recording industry are often very rigid and do not at 
>all apply and would often be inappropriate to most any other circumstance.

This from the same pen which decried the tunings he heard on many
recordings??  Methinks thou speakest with forked tongue.  Maybe you are
thinking of different standards?


1 >>  We have heard Ed Foote's CD here in Madison 
>and do not accept it as a groundbreaking acheivement in HT tuning.
&
2 >> But Mr. Foote sets himself up as some kind of leader 
>>of the HT practice. 

The above two statements bear out my 'turf war' scenario.  Is that a royal
"we"?


>I'm even willing to accept what Ed has said in one instance as fact.  No
one, 
>no one at all has ever been able to tune the piano the way I do, not even 
>him.  If I were to go to the Convention and give the class, still no one 
>would ever be able to duplicate it.


Well, why didn't you say this before??  It's all becoming perfectly clear.
With that admission, I can see that the reason you are withdrawing is the
anticipated frustration in not being able to teach your HVLP.  Perhaps you
should take a page out of Owen Jorgensen's teaching/book writing methods.

1. Write down aural tuning instructions for your temperment.
2. Find a tuner who can tune very accurately, but has never tried any
temperament other than ET.
3. Give said tuner the recipe and see what gets cooked up.
4. If results are pleasing to you, hurrah! You have produced a repeatable
temperament.
5. If the result is _not_ what you were expecting, try to figure out where
the tuner might have gone astray.
6. **very important** DO NOT BLAME THE TUNER! Go back and rewrite the
instructions so they _DO_ produce the results. Go back to step 3.  Repeat
as necessary.

If results are not repeatable, you do NOT have a temperament.  What you
have is a THEORY.


>Ed cannot tune the EBVT so he takes the 
>easy way out and dismisses and ridicules it. 

See above rules.


>I am sure that there 
>will be a whole list of short, smirky remarks,...

I'd dearly love to give a good one-liner here, but I'll just let you
imagine a few.


> each one by someone who knows 
>nothing at all about what I do and will never be able to do it.

And by your boycotting the convention, you guarantee that self-fulfilling
prophecy.  Again, I ask for a recipe that works.


>The reason I was seeking a performance venue for the EBVT is so that you and 
>everyone who might be interested or curious could hear it in the proper 
>environment: A concert or recital hall setting with a high quality concert 
>grand and a skilled, talented artist playing the finest of music.  This 
>cannot be done in a small room on a small piano during a 45 minute Minitech.

I agree.
  

>  The loudest, most negative comments always come from those who do 
>not know what they are talking about.  It is so unfortunate that those are 
>the people that get the attention.


For now we see through a glass, darkly:...


Conrad Hoffsommer - Decorah, Ia.
Confounding the experts for years.