[CAUT] HT Question

[A440A@aol.com]

Fred writes:

<< there are two Broadwood's Best.<snip> The assumption is that the tuner 
claimed to be tuning equal
temperament, but clearly these are "well-temperaments," and rather piquant
ones at that. Moore is somewhat tamer, but also quite distinct in key color.
My favorite "Victorian" tuning). >>

       I was only aware of one Broadwood's Best, and I have used the 
Broadwood's  "Usual", which Jorgensen includes in his Big Red Book.  He makes the case 
that Broadwood's advertising their exclusive use of ET was actually NOT what 
we call ET.  It is logical that against the common use of meantone, any of the 
well-temperaments could have been regarded as equal.  I really think that 200 
years ago, non-restrictive temperaments would have been called "equal" simply 
because all keys could be used.  I can't imagine any plausible reason why a 
marginally trained tuner would seek to tune the most difficult temperament when 
the WT's were so simple and had been in use for some time.  
      That the Broadwood tuners all varied their tunings away from strict 
equal is not a sign of their error or sloppiness.  ALL the tuners varied in the 
same direction, which was a mild form of the well-temperaments common 
qualities.  However, I no longer need the historical impetus to use the "other" 
tunings.  Current customers, (with their money) are a more important reason for me to 
move ET out of first place in what I use.  

 
    I have used the Moore and Co. often, and recently tuned it on a D for the 
head of the department's recital of Mozart and Schubert.  I didn't tell him 
about this, but instead, had tuned his studio pianos in a Moore and Co. 
temperament about a month before. 
      The performance sounded real good, with a noticeable increase in 
clarity over the ET I had been using.  When a colleague (the tuner for the Steinway 
dealer here and a staunch user of ET) remarked how great the tuning sounded, 
but that one section in the Mozart  Bb sonata called attention to itself as 
highly tempered, we determined it was a modulation down to Eb, which is tempered 
exactly like ET!  She was sorta surprised that an ET third was that active, 
but compared to the consonance in the rest of the piece, it was obvious how 
highly tempered a 13.7 cent third really is.  We forget that when everything is 
like that.   
     As Jon Page mentioned, the Broadwood tuning has a very tempered A-D, but 
musically, it doesn't jar or stand out.  I have had no customer raise an 
eyebrow at that, rather, someone will occasionally be given pause at the amount of 
tempering in the E-G#  or F#-A#.  
    I still believe that the inequality provides a critically important 
dimension to the keyboard music composed before true ET was in use. I have begun 
using either the Moore, Coleman 11, or Broadwood temperaments as the default 
tuning, and have found that 99% of the pianists remark on how much more resonant 
their pianos sound.  The Broadwood's Best has a noticeable change in harmonic 
values in it when used for 20th century music, and I prefer ET for a lot of 
that.  
      Where these mild WT's really shine is on the smaller pianos.  Very few 
spinets or consoles are played in keys with more than 4 sharps or flats, so my 
logic is that a tuning that increases the consonance in the keys which are 
played virtually all the time will make the piano sound far nicer.  Tuners I 
know that have tried this agree.  ET is great for us techs, it is easy to 
measure, and easy to carry the octaves out from, but the musical community is telling 
me that their pianos sound better in something else.  
    I will be carrying the Temperament Revival program to the Convention next 
year in Rochester, so maybe we can investigate farther 
Regards,  
Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html