Unequal Temperaments

[A440A@AOL.COM]

Ric writes:
<< > The intellectual understanding of temperaments is far and away
> "better" than actually playing or listening to them.  IMHO.   >>

Greetings, 
     It is refreshing to see such a clear-cut distinction between two 
opinions. On the matter of temperament, I have exactly the opposite opinion 
from Ric.  
     I think it is far more important to learn what the changes of 
temperament do for the music than it is to understand the Rubric's Cube 
nature of temperament itself.  Understanding tonality intellectually is 
valuable, yes, but learning to sense tonality on a real basis, ie, listening 
and playing on a variety of tunings, is, imo, far more important.  
    There are several reasons why I say this.  One is that the uninitiated 
tuner or musician is more easily attracted by sounds than by a large body of 
arcane data and      Secondly, without the sensual rewards that many get from 
tonal variety,  there often isn't sufficient interest in pursuing the 
rationale and history behind it.  There are commercial implications beginning 
to show themselves, also.  A multi-temperament tech has more to offer than a 
mono-temperament tech.  I personally didn't have to sacrifice my use of 
strict ET to add more dimensions to my tuning work.  
    I agree that an ability to tune an acceptable temperament aurally is a 
prerequisite to being a capable tuner.   However, saying that an aural tuner 
will produce a tuning  superior to one done by a tech using an ETD is going 
to be hard to demonstrate.   An ETD is just a tool, and the results depend on 
how the tuner uses his/her tools. 
Regards, 
Ed Foote RPT