temperament

[Richard Moody]

> Greetings,
>      I  have  customers that recognize a Kirnberger, and
> several harpsichordists knew when I had changed to a Young for a
performance,  after they had been practising with a Prelleur.

Are you saying they can recognize a Kirnberger tuning simply by listening to
a piece being played?  Or if three instruments are tuned  to Kirnberger,
Young and Prelleur, they could point out which instrument is tuned to which
temp?
    ---ric




>     On the other hand,  if a person is not sensitive to the differences,
even
> after several listenings, then I assume it must be an innate trait, like
> color-blindness, and there is nothing of interest for that person in the
> topic of temperament.
> Regards,
> Ed Foote RPT


Yes it would be interesting to see how many are sensitive to the
differences.  I am not. (perhaps not yet)   I can be playing away and forget
I am in Pythagorean, and then comes a jaring tone.  Or play what little Bach
I know in the "close keys" and forget I am in Meantone.   When it comes to
listening to recordings I am a dismal failure.  I have a tape which one side
has two diff temps and the other side only ET.  When I put it in not knowing
which side is up, I can't tell.
    Of course I am not going to say "because I can't tell the difference no
one else can" but for people like me who are curious, certainly it should be
easy to assertain who does and who does not have this ability.  More
importantly, can this ability be developed, or through training can a person
acquire this ability?   We know pitch recognition seems to be innate, as
compared to the ablility to recognize intervals which must be acquired
through training.   Perhaps an evaluation procedure might provide some
answers and stimulate new and wider interest in the topic of
temperament. ---Richard The Tester