Poetry? Get Real!!!

[David Love]

Susan:

When I was tuning aurally (not so long ago) and using a 2 octave temperament
(Baldassin/Sanderson/Kimbell type) I never found a problem with falling into
the reverse well trap--as it were.  Using the contiguous thirds method and
filling in makes it very easy to insure that doesn't happen.  I think the
reverse well fear mongering is so much politics.  Even if you set the
temperament within a single octave and have the lower thirds beating slower
and the higher thirds thus taking off a bit, it will not fall into reverse
well.  C major will be a bit more ripe, but C# major will be no less.

David Love


----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Kline" <sckline@attbi.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: August 08, 2002 2:48 PM
Subject: Re: Poetry? Get Real!!!


At 09:13 PM 8/8/2002 +0200, you wrote:

>Nonononono... The flip side of a Reverse Well is an Inverted
>EBVT. :)

You know, I'm not an expert in HT's, but this Reverse Well
talk brings up a point I really don't understand.

Now, when one tunes an HT, the "distant" keys get further
and further toward the spicy side, and the "simple" keys
are bland, right? And the progression is even? That is,
A major would be tangier than D major, and E major would
be tangier than either?

And with a "reverse well" the progression would be the
opposite, so that C# major would be all bland, and E major
sort of medium, and C major all hyper-sounding?

Two questions, really:

First of all, why is it assumed that all HT's will
center (and ALWAYS HAVE centered) on C? Or isn't
that assumed, but no one has bothered to
mention other options in my hearing?

Secondly, if people are aiming at Equal, and make a few
little "mistakes", or slight inexactitudes, small enough that
they aren't aware of them, WHY (she asked, incredulously)
would one assume that these errors would line up perfectly,
so that the keys progressed evenly but BACKWARDS? I mean,
isn't it just as likely that they'd be random? They are
small enough that someone earning a living tuning pianos
isn't hearing them, even with whatever checks, etc., they
are using.

Also, it seemed to me, when I first heard about Reverse Well,
that if it happened at all, it would likely happen with
a fourths-and-fifths tuning. But, I feel, most of us use
something more sophisticated these days, so we just don't
chase around the circle of fifths. So why would any small
discrepancies from a scientifically "PERFECT" ET end up
with a backwards slant?

Conrad, please ship out three heavy duty suits, with
that new transparent automatic flameguard visor, extra large ...

Susan

P.S. All this chasing after .15-cent-perfect exactness of
equal temperament reminds me of a statement by a very fine
professor of ceramics in the 1970's, when teaching people
to use a potter's wheel: "A perfect pot is a dead pot."