(careful, it is about temperaments)

[David Love]

I agree that most pianists are unfamiliar.  I'm not sure about the upper
level performers who really do the research into the history.  I've never
asked them but it would be interesting to inquire with a Brendel or Perahia
or other players at that level what they know and what their reasoning is
about using or not using them.  

I've clearly not tuned as many WTs as you have for customers but I have
tuned enough to get a sense of the response.  Overall, it's mixed.  Some
people like it some don't, and some can't tell (at least with the mild WTs).
Many have the same response that I do which is that it's interesting and not
unmusical, but they don't prefer it.  I've had the best reaction from people
who have two pianos and one is tuned in WT and one in ET so that they have
the option of using it or not, or people with very small spinets and similar
instruments where the WT mixed with their tendency to play in keys with
relatively few sharps and flats gives an overall impression of greater
consonance.  Generally, I've found that while people find it interesting,
they don't want it to be their everyday tuning.  I've had mild WT's on the
piano that my kids practice on for a couple of years now--I can't even
remember which one it is at this point (tells you how often I tune my own
piano), but it's a pretty mild one.  Mostly it's there because I wanted the
opportunity to listen to it myself over time and I just never took it off.
Originally I had a somewhat stronger one on and I found it quite
objectionable.  Now by strong I mean something like Young or Valotti which
is not strong by most people's standards.  The one on there currently is
much more mild than that.  

I think that one thing that ET does, and this is speculative, is that when
the thirds and sixths are all uniform in width, the brain, which wants to
hear the intervals as just, adapts to it and the "out of tuneness" of those
intervals becomes somewhat invisible and ameliorated by the similarity and
predictability of the intervals through the keys.  (String players often
can't get past that as they are used to aiming for just on their own
instruments and so the piano just drives them crazy--but they live with it.)
When the intervals change in width as you go from key to key, the unexpected
quality of the changing intervals bring it to our attention and into our
consciousness that they are, in fact, not just and are more or less out of
tune depending on the key.  Personally speaking, I notice that and it reeks
havoc with my sense of balance in the tuning of the instrument.  I can see
how others might be intrigued or stimulated by that unexpected quality but
to me it just reminds me that something is out of tune.   

David Love
davidlovepianos@comcast.net 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf
Of A440A@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2006 2:19 PM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: Re: (careful, it is about temperaments)

Davcid writes:

<< The problem with these types of explanations is that
they ignore the data.  In reaching a conclusion you first have to look at
the data and what that tells you.  After that you look at factors which
might mitigate against your conclusion.  The data suggest that people who
are presumed savvy about issues such as temperament are not choosing them.<<


    My data is primarily from usage today.  I don't presume any artist is 
savvy about temperament because I have never found one that is.  I think the

majority of them are totally in the dark about the history of intonation
since 
1700 and will remain so until the actually hear the difference.  I have 
repeatedly been told by pianists freshly introduced  to WT that nobody has
ever brought 
the subject up!     
 
>>When you stick to your conclusion (really your opening
premise) in spite of the data then it suggests a bias.  You're really
starting with a conclusion and then looking for reasons to support it rather
than collecting the data and reaching a conclusion based on what you find.

>>

    My opening premise in my career was that the more equal the temperament,

the better.  After becoming familiar with alternatives and offering them to 
pianists, I was profoundly amazed at the positive reaction I was getting for

these "weird" tunings Jorgensen proposed.  I was also amazed at how
attracted 
pianists I have tuned these for were.  If I say nothing and let the tuning
speak 
for itself, the response has been overwhelmingly positive about 94% of the 
time.  I have now come to a different conclusion; that for the majority of 
listeners in blind comparisons, the ET pianos sound harsh and somehow out of
tune 
when up against at mild WT.   
 
regards, 
Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
 
_______________________________________________
Pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives