historical vs. equal temperament

[Douglas Hershberger]

dear list,
   with all the recent talk of HT's, I was doing a little
studying/experimenting and I just wanted to throw out a few thoughts I
had. I am by no means an expert in HT's but I do have 20 years
experience as a full time tech. I also play piano and guitar and
consider myself very musical. BTW, I am very interested in all kinds of
tuning. I like the concept of returning to olden ways because it could
be more musical, more historically correct, whatever you want to call
it.
   Over the years I have experimented with Prof. Jorgensen's  book, "The
Equal-Beating Temperaments" and I also am  impressed with Jim Coleman's
efforts in this regard including the perfect fifths temperament.
   As an example, today I tried Young's Well-Temperament No. 2 on a
Steinway L. I'm sure this temperament would sound better on say, an old
Viennese style piano than a modern high tension piano. As I played it, I
thought that it just sounded kind of dead and lifeless(boring). You
could sure get color differences from key to key but why would you need
so much.I'm not sure which temperament would have been used in Chopin's
time but after listening to the simple keys, C,F,G, etc. maybe that is
why he wrote in keys with lots of sharps. I realize that is all
speculative but just my opinion.
   I then retuned it in ET (this was a piano I was prepping for a
dealer) and played it.Is it just me or do others hear alot of color
variation and different flavor when playing the same song in different
keys in ET? The piano sure sounds more alive and exciting to my ear when
tuned in ET. I also get that impression from Jim's perfect fifths
temperament.
   So I quess my point is that there is a time and place for HT's and in
my opinion the right instrument. I plan on continuing to study alot more
but I for one, would not just completely get away from ET. I am just not
convinced it is more musical. I think tuning by ear, which I don't
always do lets you adjust the thirds and sixths so they are not so
harsh, more musical. The SAT or RCT may not even agree that it is a
perfect equal-temperament but who is the judge, you or the machine.
   Sorry to be so long winded.
Doug Hershberger, RPT