Ed: Inspired by your email, this morning I tuned practice room pianos in Young's #1, Kirnberger III, and Coleman XI. I've done this before, but I hadn't yet this year. I think it is important in an academic setting to expose the students (and faculty) to these alternatives. I'm glad I can do it, and it usually gets a few comments. Having said all that, I wish I liked the sound better. 62 years of listening to ET, and 29 years of evaluating my work and the work of others as to how E the ET is, makes these temperaments sound somewhere between "a little off" to "really bad." I know it's unfair, but A-flat in a Werkmeister III doesn't sound "alive" to me, it just sounds "bad." As you grew in your knowledge and use of HTs did you go through this phase? I know it's not politically correct to say it, but I like ET, and the more E the better!! dave *********** REPLY SEPARATOR *********** On 10/16/01 at 12:21 PM A440A@AOL.COM wrote: >Greetings all, > A very interesting morning over at Vanderbilt. Earlier this year, I >had >tuned pianos in three adjacent practise rooms for a comparison. In one, I >had good ol' ET, in another I had Jorgensen's extrapolation that we call >the >Broadwood's Best, and in the third room, Thomas Young's ideas were made >manifest. > I was being interviewed by a student inre the effects of temperament, >when >I asked him about the three practise rooms. He said, "Johnson, myself, and >two others are always fighting to get in the Young room", and he knew of >several others that have become very partial to the Victorian sounds of >the >Broadwood. I asked about the ET room and he said that is always open, >because nobody wants to play that one! His comment was that it sounded >boring, now. >(These are three new Yamaha C 2 pianos). He wanted to know if there >couldn't >be more unequal temperaments put in place, and I suggested that he make >this >request to the head of the piano dept/ and or the Dean. He said that the >piano students would love to petition the dept. to add more temperaments, >so >here we go! > In discussing this with a prof. I learn that the piano students are >suddenly asking new questions, and more importantly, playing with more >expression than they have previously. He wanted more info, but said to >keep >up whatever I was doing, because the students were obviously more musical >in >their playing. This is good news. > I got the impetus to do this from Charles Ball and Tom Seay(Mary? >did >you say you were doing this too?), down in Texas, where they had a few >rooms >in temperaments. I would like to encourage any caut to consider doing >this. >I have my charts( from the "Six Degrees" CD), on each door with a one >paragraph description of the era of that particular tuning developement. >If >anybody wants to use them for a like project, feel free to do so. I think >this is making a real positive difference,and the students are getting >enthused. >Regards, >Ed Foote RPT _____________________________ David M. Porritt dporritt@mail.smu.edu Meadows School of the Arts Southern Methodist University Dallas, TX 75275 _____________________________
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