temperaments:clear as mud?

[Richard Brekne]

Ron Koval wrote:

> in response to Ed's post:
>
> ET is ET, and those that want to ascribe different "characters" to the
> keys will have to explain why a piano tuned 1/2 step flat will make the key
> of C sound just like the key of B. I have heard musicians recognize the
> 'character" of B on such a piano, even when I was playing in C!!
>

Grin... I think really you have just made the perfect case for why many do
ascribe different key colour to different ET keys.  I suppose then that C tuned
at A 440 sounds like C and not like B ???  That being said... I fail to see what
all the argument is about... it is a matter of the most obvious that the type of
key colour HT enthusiasts are talking about is inherently different then that
found in different ET keys.

In ET, intervals and chords get tenser and tenser as you progress up the
keyboard... Keys then have this same general tendency. In circle of 5ths
arrangements HT's do something very much different, progressive sequences of
intervals and chords behave in an entirely different fashion. This lies, in
part, at the heart of the key colour difference and really is not anything
anyone can doubt or bring into question.

ET has its kind of key colour... HT's have a different sort altogether.

--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no