historical vs. equal temperament

[Billbrpt@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/1/98 4:34:26 PM Central Daylight Time, A440A@aol.com
writes:

<< Doug asks:
 > I believe the concert tuners for Steinway in the basement in NY use
 >ET for the best pianists in the world.  In some of the greatest concert
 >venues in the world.
        It was my understanding that much of the factory designated tuning
 followed a "perfect fifths" pattern in the mid to upper treble.  This is a
 departure from ET, and perhaps someone can find the postings concerning this
 topic from last year. 
 
 >Does this mean that because they are playing in ET
 >pianists such as the late Horowitz played with "diminished sensitivity"?
 >Or that the worlds greatest pianists who went to the worlds greatest
 >music conservatories are uninformed about what "keyboard tonality is and
 >how to work with it"? 
 
       I believe the answer is yes to both of these questions.  I have spoken
 with a number of performing pianists, and am astounded at the ignorance when
 the topic is temperament!   They may discuss stretch and unison clarity, but
 when you ask them about temperament, the status quo is used to cover their
 inability to even discuss the concept.  
      Just because someone is a gifted artist does not mean that they have
been
 exposed to the historical tuning that preceded our modern age.  It would be
 interesting to know how many artists on the Steinway roster have any
 experience with era-appropriate tunings for their repertoire and rejected
 them.   
 Regards, 
 Ed Foote
 
  >>

Thanks Ed,
I totally agree with what you have said here.  Yes, Horowitz was a great
pianist but he did not tell the Steinway tuners *how* to tune the piano, they
just did what *they* were taught.  Horowitz developed his style according to
what he had to work with.  It would have been interesting to hear him play in
other temperaments than the one and only which was force-fed to him.

It is no secret that the Steinway Hall tuners have long used the so-called "ET
with pure 5ths" variation from true ET.  There is only so far you can go with
any modifications to ET before it stops being ET.  In this arrangement, the
intervals within the octave are all equal but the octave itself is tempered.
It cannot be considered a true ET because of this.  It might be called "Quasi
Pythagorean ET".

It boils down to believing whatever it is that suits you.   It does not suit
me to believe that ET is the only way to tune a piano nor do I believe that
most people actually accomplish it.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin