well temperament defined

[Avery Todd]

Thanks Ed. I appreciate it.

Avery

At 08:34 AM 03/21/03 -0500, you wrote:
>Avery asks:
><< While we're sort of on the subject of definitions, why is a Victorian
>called that?
>What makes it different from a "normal" WT? <<
>
>   I call them "Victorian" because Jorgensen did.  It appears that he does so
>because it was in the Victorian era that the well-temperaments became so mild
>that they were called equal, even though, by contemporary standards, they are
>not equal, at all.  The Moore & Co, Broadwood's, and Coleman tunings are all
>within the definition of Well-Tempered as it is being used today, so I have
>no quibble calling them well-temperaments.  "Victorian tuning can also apply
>to what we see as "quasi-ET" that Owen documents, so maybe a more accurate
>term could be "Victorian well-temperaments" if we want to distinguish between
>mild WT and quasi-ET.  I suppose how far one wants to carry the delineation
>is a matter of personal preference or utility.
>    I basically see temperaments as falling into three categories:  Meantone,
>with its restrictions, Well-tempered, with its tonal palette, and equal, with
>neither.  There is, of course, some overlapping between these, and as our
>CD's meantone Scarlatti shows, MT can be used without suffering from its
>restriction,and  ET can pleasantly be used for Mozart, etc. This doesn't
>necessarily mean that the maximum impact is obtained by these uses, but
>emotional impact is not easily measured,(especially scientifically), since it
>depends on the listener, too.
>
>Ed Foote RPT
>www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/
>www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
>
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