In a message dated 10/5/00 2:26:18 PM Central Daylight Time, JIMRPT@AOL.COM writes: << A well crafted temperament of any type does not have to be "perfect" in order to be a very very good temperament. This applies to all temperaments and each is as hard to get perfect, vis a vis "intentions", when the same parameters of +/- of "intentions" are applied to each. >> Sorry to have to contradict you on this again, Jim (and I know it will be viewed as a "personal attack" because anytime someone writes what I would call "baloney" and I point it out, I get unsigned e-mails from some jerk who is too chicken to say who he is) but this has been discussed before. It is much easier to tune a series of pure 4ths & 5ths and prove them aurally and also tune a series of Equal Beating intervals where the tuner ascertains correctness when two intervals beat exactly alike, than it is to tune all 4ths & 5ths just slightly tempered but by a very precise amount and to make no other intervals exactly the same as each other but also correct only within very small tolerances. It is, in fact *easier* to tune a classic Well-Tempered Tuning such as the Thomas young, the Kirnberger or the Werkmeister and get it exactly correct than it is to tune Equal Temperament (ET). Furthermore, what Ron says is true too: One or more small errors in ET turn it into something else, with unintended effects while the same kinds of small errors in many of the HT's do not have that same effect. ET is by far, the most difficult of all temperaments to tune precisely and correctly. Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin
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