Coleman 11

[A440A@AOL.COM]

Greetings, 
When I wrote: 

><<The former are to be pursued, wooed, encouraged and helped,  the latter
>are  to be *pitied*, but don't slam the door on them, they will want to play
>too,  once they see it is safe and everybody else is having *more* fun than 
they
> are.>>
   JIM writes: 
> I totally agree with your comments 'except' for the "pitied", "more" and
> "forward" thingees. :-(
>
>"Pitied" Sir? for liking/accepting ET as opposed to some other style?.. 

 No,  I believe you are linking some things together that were unintended.  I 
said 
      "There will be schools that seek the avante-garde, (go Avery!), and 
there will be               others that run and hide from it.   The former 
are to be pursued, wooed,   encouraged and helped,  the latter are to be 
pitied" <snip>

      By this I mean that some schools are progressive, and take close looks 
at the untested or unconventional., (Marshall University is one of those),    
These are the "former" I refer to. 
The "latter" is not the school that doesn't want to hear about temperaments, 
it is the school that hides from the avante-garde.  And just because 
temperament use is   avante-garde, it does't mean that it IS THE 
avante-garde.  It is just a part of it.  What can be said of something being 
rejected before being listened to?
      I feel sorry for those that won't take a chance.  I have in-laws like 
that, I have been at schools like that, and I see record producers like that. 
 I pity them because they choose to have the same experiences over and over.  
Eventually life is over, schools become tradition-bound, and the same old 
records stop selling.   A strong impetus in my own pursuit of temperament 
knowledge is growth.  Growth requires change, and change requires new.  This 
is new. It is worth something.  

 >and "more" fun Sir?.....is baseball "more fun" than golf for those who
>are  advocates of one or the other? Is Ravel "more fun" than Chopin? or 
>Stravinsky? 

   I was comparing mono-temperament environments to multi-temperament ones,  
not one instrument compared to another.  The  golf analogy would be more 
germane if we would compare a bag with one club in it that does everything 
sorta ok, an "average" that will get you around the course,  with the bag 
containing a variety of clubs, of differing strengths and weights for 
different conditions.  Which would be more fun to play golf with? 
    I included the "fun" part because of feedback I am getting from my 
customers.  It is common to hear from them that they are enjoying playing the 
piano more than they have in years,  several have regulated their actions 
because of the new-found attraction.  This seems like a likely description 
for "more fun".  
 
>and "forward" Sir? Why do you think that going to a 'more' Historical 
>Temperament is a move "forward"??  A definite move it is when compared
>to ET 
>but "forward"??.....

   Well,  for starters, you will not find the word "historical" in my post.  
I try to be clear, but sometimes people infer stuff I didn't intend, sorry if 
this is one of them.
  What I am discussing is adding to ones tuning ability.  I think going to a 
multi-temperament world is a move forward.  There is music being written 
today in temperaments other than ET, and we can either be part of it, or 
anchor ourselves in the intonation that we inherited.  I am not advocating 
the elimination of ET, I am suggesting that we end its hedgemony!  there is a 
difference! 
   I guess I am just trying to make sense out of why so many of my customers 
are so happily affected by the change out of ET.  It isn't smoke and mirrors, 
there are some serious pianists out there that are enjoying playing more than 
they ever have before.  Isn't this worth pursuing?  I think so, and that is 
at the heart of my temperament efforts,  to spread the word to techs that 
this is worth trying, even if not continued, it will allow the tech another 
perspective and this will allow them to hear what ET really sounds like. It 
is a cool sound, but not the only one. 
Regards, 
Ed Foote
(yea,  I know,  my mother told me I was obtuse.......) 
  




>
> Nay Sir....terms such as "pity", "more fun" and "forward" would much better
>
>serve the 'movement' of HT proponents were they to be changed to some such
>
>as; exposed to.....having fun with what they are doing and listening 
>to.........different direction...well you get the idea, Huh?
>
> "Pity", "more fun" and "forward" are all terms of arrogance and presupposes
>
>a superiority that exists only in the mind of the individual and their
>terms 
>of acceptance or rejection of ideas/sounds be they ET vs HT or Ravel vs
>
>Chopin.