Appropriate Historical Temperaments

[A440A@aol.com]

Lawrence writes:

<<Also, I was heartened by Ed's comment that he keeps most instruments in 

Young.  I'm thinking that's what we call the Valotti/Young, which is our 

default for harpsichord and fortepiano.<<

Greetings, 
   I may have give a slightly erroneous impression.  The harpsichord is kept 
in a Young as the default tuning. However,  the humidity changes  cause far 
greater deviation that any found between temperaments, so for something like 
a harpsichord, which must be tuned before each use, we really don't have a 
default.  As far as "most",  I am beginning to get too varied for any 
particular tuning.  I have Young temperaments in jazz clubs, Victorians in 
most of my homes, ET's (as well as  Youngs) in recording studios, Coleman 11 
and 16 in school practise rooms, etc.  (oh, did I mention, I LIKE this stuff?)
  In the rest of the music school,  I am using a variety.  I have a Young in 
a practise room, and also a Coleman 11.  In two of the piano teachers 
studios, I have the pianos in Broadwood's  version of a Victorian ET.  They 
like it. 
   In the studio of our voice dept. head,  I use a Moore & Co. temperament.  
He really likes the sound, and a visiting accompanist from a rather 
prestigious school was smitten by the piano, all around.  (no, we never 
mentioned anything being differnent).  
     All of these late model, modified ET's expand the range of the thirds' 
sizes. Compared to a steady 13.7 cents in ET, the 16 or 17 cent thirds in B 
or F# are a little more "energetic", but the music seems to have already been 
written to accomodate that, in fact, often making a feature out of what could 
be construed as a bug. 
     The added consonance of slowing down the thirds in keys is what really 
hits the pianists most strongly.  The lessening of tempering in the most 
commonly used tonalities has more impact than the occasional blare of a 
highly tempered passage.  The effect on pedaling is also noticed quite 
quickly.  
    I am curious about how the temperament ordinaire is going to be received. 
 It appears that the key of Ab will have an extremely wide tonic third(24 
cents?). I imagine that Beethoven's "Pathetique" would be really tedious in 
this tuning, since we used a Kirnberger for our recording,and the 21 cent Ab 
third in that key was about as much as I could take!   Please keep us posted 
on how far you can go with your faculty.   
      I have found it interesting that several listeners to the Mozart 
comparisons on our Six Degrees CD have decided that they like the 1/4 comma 
meantone version!!  I am astounded, since everytime I hear that wolf 
clang,(it is 41 cents wide), the hair on the back of my neck stands up.  Just 
goes to show that there is a WIDE variety of tastes out there.  
    
    As a side note somewhat out of the academic field, songwriters here tell 
me that they are writing in keys they never used before their pianos got 
"bent",(their word for non ET). 
Regards, 
Ed Foote   

 

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