setting temperament /color in ET

[Ron Koval]

O.K. now, follow me on this for awhile-

If you put these two threads together, you see that there MUST be key color 
in equal temperament.  In traditional HTs, the rapid beating interval of the 
third is varied in a non-liner manner. (mostly relating to the circle of 
fifths, slower at the top, quicker at the bottom of the circle)

When working on setting a temperament we talk of a smooth progression of the 
thirds as you go up chromaticly (linear)- so our thirds in ET are not even, 
but changing in speed, depending on the key.

So...... in the span of a few octaves, play the same simple melody over 
chords WITH THE SAME VOICING.  You will hear different beat rates.  voila! 
key color.  Now, by changing the voicing, (open the chords up, you can 
effectivly slow down the beat rates.)  Wow, same key, different effect!

So, be it Equal temp, any HT or even Reverse Well, it isn't good or bad, 
just different.  Yup, back to the spice analogy. I think the main objection 
to RW should only be that it is placed without intent.  I would even propose 
that in certain situation, Reverse well would be the proper choice over a 
traditional Historical temperament.  Think about how many vocal selections 
are transposed to fit a certain vocal range, or how many stage band pieces 
are in the flat keys for the instrumentation.

Historical temperaments, I would rather call Optomizing temperaments, 
because they choose certain keys to favor.  That way, you can bring the 
music back into the tuning, not get stuck in the history angle.

Enjoy the Holidays!

Ron Koval


Chicagoland


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