what's with the new temperaments?(x post)

Ron Koval drwoodwind@hotmail.com
Tue, 04 Mar 2003 16:06:43 +0000


ricB wrote:
And dont get me wrong.... I am pretty much on this wagon myself..... its 
just that my results so far simply do not bear out your own. I have had a 
few exceptions...
like the Broadwoods best # 5 quasi ET.... but then that didnt even qualifie 
as a Well temperament.

<end>

I can't help but wonder if you went too strong.  Have you had a chance to 
try ones with smaller offsets?  Even the Broadwood's best (that Ed uses)is 
pretty heavy duty for a first step!

I did a demo last year, bunch of pianos spread around the college with 
different temperaments, some strong, some not.  But even the one with the 
Penny (check it out at rollingball.com) was obvious to those that were 
listening  for it.  That temperament was created for the demo to show what a 
maximum of one cent in the offsets can produce, however I think the KV1 
plays nicer...

A tuning I did for another tech, using my KV1.9 (max offset=1.9 cents) was 
obvious to him, and he mentioned that he may want to rethink how he played 
some cadences in the remote keys.  I've always considered the primary 
benefit of the temperaments is for the performer.  Even if they don't 
realize what's different, I get positive comments about the sound.  (Kindof 
like small changes in voicing being percieved as changes to the touch, or 
the opposite!...)


I started this thread not so much as a re-opening of the HT-ET discussion, 
but the recommendation for those willing techs to try out modern well 
temperaments created from scratch to try and maximize some of the strong 
points of the historical temperaments.  There's enough variation in the 
historical record to suggest that many different temperaments were in common 
use, sharing similar attributes.  I was hoping to give some reasons to try 
something new......

Ron Koval
Chicagoland

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