historical temperaments

[Kent Swafford]

On 1/13/02 5:19 AM, "A440A@AOL.COM" <A440A@AOL.COM> wrote:

>  Isacoff's book "Temperament" has proposed that ET was the great riddle
> that solved music's great mystery.  There were initially a lot of glowing
> reviews of the book, written by people that have never tuned a piano.  It
> made good press, but, in the words of the Times editor, the reviewer is
> getting a LOT of heat, since Isacoff's book basically glossed over the real
> riddle, and made Mozart and Bach's music possible!!  He has confused the lack
> of meantone wolves with equality, duh.
>   I have written a critical review of the book and expect, at some point,
> to be involved in a debate with the author.

Ed,

I hope this post isn't too scattered:

I saw Isacoff's book as a good treatment of the overall trip through the
centuries from Pythagorean tuning to equal temperament.

The fact that well temperaments were good destinations in and of themselves
during the trip away from mean-tone tunings toward equal temperament is a
detail that you should fill in, but...

The phenomenon of tuners being able to tune any temperament from any time in
history is a new phenomenon, isn't it? In previous centuries non of the
temperaments of the day could be executed with the accuracy that those same
temperaments can be tuned today. This is new. Musicians deal with subtlety.
And we can provide some new subtleties to the music-making of those
performers who are interested. We definitely have something to offer, and
the discussion of Isacoff's book will provide a forum to offer this service
and to fill in some important details in the history of temperament.

You wrote:
> (tuners seem to be about the ONLY people in the world that care about
> perfectly aligned chromatic thirds!)

Exactly. You personally have explained and charted the different well
temperaments in a way that lets tuners understand the differences between ET
and the various specific well temperaments, but will music performers
understand? One of Jorgensen's students came to the college here in KC
almost two decades ago and could not sell historical tunings, except to a
student or two.

I guess what I am getting at is that I am all for spreading the word about
well temperaments and am more than willing to provide them to my customers,
but go easy on Isacoff if you can; I don't see his work as particularly
deficient. It is just that he has left some room for tuners to offer and
demonstrate some new in-depth additions to the story.

I hope I have the chance to read the discussions that come from all this.
And I look forward to the Clara CD.

Kent Swafford