[CAUT] ET vs UET

[David Ilvedson]

I've got to ask in the WT vs. ET is the piano playing anything in the harsh keys?   

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA  94044

----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: "Ed Foote" <a440a at aol.com>
To: caut at ptg.org
Received: 4/22/2010 7:11:33 PM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] ET vs UET


>Fred writes,
> >>I can find no way to connect 20th century VT practice with the Victorian Era, 
>other than Owen Jorgensen's fantasy. The facts simply aren't there. 

>         These facts are not simple.  It is good to remember that it is our interpretation 
>of history and its record, not fact, that we make our decisions upon.  

>>>It is very useful to try to get at some way of defining what constitutes the 
>margin of error within which the vast majority of people will say "that is a tuning 
>recognizable as ET and a good one." A baseline. It is also very useful to step back 
>and wonder what differences do actually register with the listener - the average 
>listener, the acute listener, the one-of-a-kind listener.<<

>        The stimulative effects of dissonance, and the sedative effects of consonance 
>are involutary.  It is less of a hearing difference(intellectual determination),  than a 
>difference in emotional response.  So, for us to determine the effect of 
>temperament would require we listen to a comparison, and THEN survey to find out 
>which type of intonation(temperament) has more emotional impact.  My opinion is 
>that the unequal temperaments create more of an emotional response than ET. This 
>opinion has been formed by the last 12 presentations I have been part of in which 
>ET and WT were compared.  Some of these were blind, some were audiences of 
>tuners, sometimes music lovers, sometimes piano faculty.  The response has been 
>consistent, the WT is always overwhelmingly favored, regardless of repertoire.  
>What does this tell us? 
>       If anyone has a question of this, I make this offer:  I will compare a straight FAC 
>based, WT tuning  against the finest, most refined ET that any tech, or group of 
>techs,would like to put on a similar instrument.  Play anything from Brahms or 
>before, it doesn't matter.  I submit that the vast majority of listeners will prefer the 
>WT. 

>Regards, 
>Ed Foote RPT

> 

>