aural tradition takes a hit

[Richard Moody]

----- Original Message -----
From: <A440A@aol.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 7:35 AM
Subject: Inre Montal, (temperament stuff,again)


.
>
>
> >And what  was this "rank and file tuning according to hand me
>
> down instruction"?   Meantone?
>
>    From many indications, yes.  Hipkins says that one of James
Broadwood's
> favorite tuners used meantone, so we might consider that the
wolves were
> still prowling in the 1800's.  This would make a
well-temperament easy to
> regard as equal. Which would answer a lot of the questions
posed.

.................................................
OK, but where, when and how was "well-temperament" taught and by
whom?   Hipkins makes no mention of it, nor does Ellis, or Montal,
or Mersenne.  Where actually in the historical record are these
"wells" mentioned?

....................................
> >>Consider how it {well-temperament} is proposed to be
> tuned-------by machine.

..........................................
>     The aural tradition has taken the biggest hit in the history
of tuning
> during the last 12 years, and it is solely due to the
programmable tuning  machine.  In formal comparisons, the best of
the best, (Coleman and Smith)  have demonstrated that tuners
cannot reliably tell the difference between the  two.

.........................................................
Yes but I meant the machine seems to offer the most expedient way
to tune historical temperaments because they have not been handed
down in the aural tradition as ET was.
    When you say   "the aural tradition has taken the biggest hit
in the history of tuning.." are you are gloating or lamenting?
Should the aural tradition languish because those who want to tune
in the next twelve years need only the machine? Is there no
interest in how tuners such as Bill Garlich or Franz Mohr, or the
tuners in London, New York, Berlin
Moscow, Paris or where ever tuning is done by ear, is there no
interest in how they were  trained, how they tune and how they are
regarded by among musicians as tuners?


 >   It has been the only one for the last 100 years, but that is
the point >of > this whole discussion, there is a lot of piano
music written before >ET had it > influence.

James Broadwood wrote in 1811 about how to tune ET.  From 1811 to
2003 is closer to 200 years than 100.   And he probably had been
tuning ET a few years before he wrote about it. Most of piano
music was written after 1811.
>
>
>

>Mersenne also said that it {ET} wouldn't be possible to achieve
this by ear.

He did ??   Quote the source please.  I  think you will find
"barely perceptible" as regards to how much the 5ths are to be
flattened.  Not the same as impossible acheive by ear.




> >>who was Columbus's navigator?
>
> Americus Vespucci.  Our country is named for him.
>
>
>  Ed Foote RPT

Again you are making up history.  Unless the Encyclopedia
Britannica is wrong, Vespucci was not on board in 1492,  he did
not meet Columbus until the 3rd voyage.  The article does not say
he sailed with CC then or ever.
---rm