----- Original Message ----- From: <A440A@AOL.COM> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2001 7:31 PM Subject: Re: Square Grand/HT Temperaments | I think there is rarely a need to | go all the way to 1/4 Comma. | Regards, | Ed Foote RPT Since many if not most church organs, in England in particular, if people like Braid White are correct, were tuned in Meantone up until the 1850's. Meantone may have been the universal temperament until ET assended. If a person is into historical temperaments, the most historical of them all has to be Meantone. But I am dying to see how modern musicans would take to it. With its pure thirds I think it would be great for singers esp of the folk or country and western genere. It does very well in the minor keys. You have not heard "Greensleaves" until you have heard it in MT. "Amazing Grace" is truly amazing. All of the carols and hymns take on a "new character". I would like to hear someone like Emy Lou Harris do a Christmas album with just her and a piano tuned to MT. Or hear MT with the singer who sang the accompanying music for the photos of Ground Zero on TV the other night. In the "right" keys MT is a new musical experience for our ET accustomed ears. It is limited to the "close" key signatures. The minor keys sound more minor, the major keys seem more major, to my ears at least. Certain kinds of music may fare better than others. There must be some chamber music with new musical dimensions that have not been heard until played in MT. Even Vivaldi with his modulations, there must be some pieces that would really sound different if the harpsichord were tuned in Meantone. And this is not subjective as with the other HT's, as in "do I really hear a difference?.....yes--there--I think I heard something". Because we have never heard pure 3rds on the piano, MT really captures the ear. A final note, it can been seen from the theory that MT 5ths are contracted twice as much as ET. Some may -think- this would not sound so good but the opposite is true especially when the 5ths are part of 3 part harmony. A 5th sounded alone does sound sour but in a major or minor triad and in any of the positions (inversions) that sourness mysteriously turns to sweetness. ---ric
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