Control, Lust for Power and the Fear & Hatred of HT's

[Jon Page]

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Ed,
I appreciated your scholarly approach to the subject of HT's.
It is no wonder why you were invited to instruct classes, your
demeanor and positive attitude say much for your abilities.
We all know a zealot in this field who is single-handedly
undermining the crusade.

It's amazing how someone can lose sight of a "win" in Providence
for a tuning scheme in the "Festival of Temperaments".  It is sad
to witness this decay of someone's (self)respect.

I have a question, this so-called EB Vic is not an actual "old time"
temperament but one of contemporary contrivance, yes(?) so could it
not also be called ET (?)  meaning Experimental Tuning (??) or AT
Alternative Tuning ?

I fail to see where a modern alternative can be placed with time
honored approaches. And how a wild card (read: loose cannon)
is allowed such verbose allegations.

But then again, we all know someone who is the
East end of a West bound horse.

Jon Page


At 08:15 PM 6/2/99 -0400, you wrote:
> Greetings all, 
>-> with snips (hopefully "non-context-changing-but-for brevity-sake" snips)
>Bill writes
>>the Balwin Recital in 1995 too.
>
> sigh 
><big, eye-rolling,groping for a beer, head-shaking, mouth-gaping SIGH!)
>
>     Bill's post is a combination of temperament crusade and and personal 
>attack on Gina Carter.  I will only respond to the techincal side of this,
as 
>Gina, though never met, has always been a delightful correspondant with me, 
>and more to the point, is accepted and respected by a mutual friend that I 
>think a lot of, so I shall let the lady swing her own sword, and would
expect 
>her to swing it forcefully and freely when so openly attacked. (you go 
>girl..)  
>
>>Yes, the temperament used on that occasion was the boldest and strongest
>>yet,  the 1/7 Comma Meantone. 
>
>     I fail to see the reasoning that would couple so strong temperament
with 
>such a refined piece of modulatory art as the Waldstein. 
>
>>It had many people very interested.  So much so,
>>that people were gathering all around the piano, testing and listening
>>to intervals and asking questions afterwards.  The great majority of the 
>>audience was very impressed.  
>
>  I must indignantly disagree.  People will gather around a car wreck or a 
>house fire, please don't think that is an automatic blessing.  
>  I heard that recital, and it was the worst sounding Waldstein that I have 
>memory of hearing. It was not helped that it was an amatuerish performance
by 
>the young lady, I think she was in way over her head. 
>       I had been listening to Ludwig's stuff on a great many tunings, and 
>noticed in the Baldwin performance a lack of the refinement I have come to 
>expect from him.   Even having this obtuse obsession for tonality as I do,
 I 
>thought there were numerous places where there was way too much "salt".  
>(Beginning in measure 35!)             The  huge clashes of dissonance felt 
>like they were in the wrong places.  This tuning may have worked on a 
>fortepiano in front of an gallery of experienced early 19th century ears,
but 
>I thought it was the wrong tuning for that instrument, composition, and 
>audience.  
>
>>Yet, as you might expect, what might please,
>>interest and titillate most listeners sounded objectionable to a few, a
>>very  few.
>
>   Half the people that I heard talk about that performance didn't notice 
>anything different, and the other half thought it sounded out of tune.   I 
>didn't think it was well received.  That is not a scientific poll, just what 
>I remember getting in the way of feedback.  
> 
>>The fact is that there will be no Historical Temperament performance at
>>the Convention this year because there are a few people within the 
>organization. 
>
>    Puhleeeeze!  There will be performances on a non-ET tuning, Thursday and 
>Sunday.  All you have to do is put up with me talking in between them.
(No, 
>I am not going to identify the temperament, that will be done in class, by 
>attendees.......) 
> If some factory rep hears it, and likes the sound,(many of those people
have 
>good ears and refined musical tastes too!), it may find its way onstage, you 
>never know.  
> 
>>List, it is time to get real about this stuff.  <snip> It is not a place
for 
>people to assert their desire for power and control over others.
>
>    To get real?  I say way too much color was used in a very scrutinized 
>venue, and people squawked.  For the tuner to respond by blaming political 
>machinations is to sidestep responsibility for the amount of tempering
done.  
>This is a no-no in my book.  If there is a negative reaction to one's 
>tempering, then accept that as evidence of having missed the mark, and 
>resolve to hit closer to home next time.  That will allow the door to remain 
>open, rather than losing options for all the wrong reasons.  
>    The acceptance of something new is the result of carefully matching the 
>power(temperament) to the impedance (audience).  Doing this is a learned 
>skill, and with my classes in K.C. I hope to be of some assistance to those 
>that would like to add it to their expertise.  Clouding the issue with 
>perceived personal vendettas and paranoia is counterproductive to progress 
>and unpleasant as all hell to read in my email. 
>Regards, 
>Ed Foote 
> 
>( If it is of any interest,  Bob Seger just finished a week-long recording 
>project here,  on a Victorian tuning after hearing both it and ET 
>side-by-side.  I could have had a stronger tuning there, but the risk of it 
>being rejected was too high,(IMHO) so I took the win with lower odds. I 
>really think that temperament progress in the current music world is made
one 
>small step at a time, not by big jarring changes.) 
> 
>  
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