Modern historical temperaments, was Re: If

[Carl Root]

Don wrote:
> The problem as I see it is that there is *no* consensus on what a good
> temperament is. 
(snip)
> You can say a temperament is *even* or that it *favores* certain intervals.

A good temperament has been defined as as one that does not favor any
key signatures or any intervals, ie there is a constant rate of increase
of beat rates as you go up the scale.  So we have agreed on what a good
temperament is.

Yes, this assumes that we are talking about equal temperament.  If we
are talking about historical temperaments, then I assume we are still
talking about intentionally altering intervals to achieve a certain
affect.  I would be interested in knowing how tuners who tune historical
temperaments deal with the the issue of determining how an oddly scaled
piano will affect beat rates of all or just some intervals.  

I guess I am concerned that this interest in historical temperaments in
the last few years could lead to newcomers to our profession deciding
that the ability to set an equal temperament by aurally measuring each
piano's inharmonicity is not really important.  Just invent your own
modern historical temperament and off you go.  No one will notice.

Here's an essay question for the RPT exam:
"Describe how your tuning procedures measure the effects of
inharmonicity on the beat rates of your temperament sequence."

Carl Root, RPT
Rockville, MD