more on this temperament thing

[David M. Porritt]

Ed:

Inspired by your email, this morning I tuned practice room pianos in
Young's #1, Kirnberger III, and Coleman XI.  I've done this before,
but I hadn't yet this year.  I think it is important in an academic
setting to expose the students (and faculty) to these alternatives.
I'm glad I can do it, and it usually gets a few comments.

Having said all that, I wish I liked the sound better.  62 years of
listening to ET, and 29 years of evaluating my work and the work of
others as to how E the ET is, makes these temperaments sound
somewhere between "a little off" to "really bad."  I know it's
unfair, but A-flat in a Werkmeister III doesn't sound "alive" to me,
it just sounds "bad."  As you grew in your knowledge and use of HTs
did you go through this phase?  I know it's not politically correct
to say it, but I like ET, and the more E the better!!

dave

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 10/16/01 at 12:21 PM A440A@AOL.COM wrote:

>Greetings all, 
>    A very interesting morning over at Vanderbilt. Earlier this
year, I
>had 
>tuned pianos in three adjacent practise rooms for a comparison.  In
one, I 
>had good ol' ET,  in another I had Jorgensen's extrapolation that we
call
>the 
>Broadwood's Best, and in the third room, Thomas Young's ideas were
made 
>manifest.  
>   I was being interviewed by a student inre the effects of
temperament,
>when 
>I asked him about the three practise rooms. He said, "Johnson,
myself, and 
>two others are always fighting to get in the Young room", and he
knew of 
>several others that have become very partial to the Victorian sounds
of
>the 
>Broadwood.  I asked about the ET room and he said that is always
open, 
>because nobody wants to play that one!  His comment was that it
sounded 
>boring, now.   
>(These are three new Yamaha C 2 pianos).  He wanted to know if there
>couldn't 
>be more unequal temperaments put in place, and I suggested that he
make
>this 
>request to the head of the piano dept/ and or the Dean.  He said
that the 
>piano students would love to petition the dept. to add more
temperaments,
>so 
>here we go!
>   In discussing this with a prof. I learn that the piano students
are 
>suddenly asking new questions, and more importantly, playing with
more 
>expression than they have previously.  He wanted more info, but said
to
>keep 
>up whatever I was doing, because the students were obviously more
musical
>in 
>their playing.  This is good news.  
>    I got the impetus to do this from Charles Ball and  Tom
Seay(Mary? 
>did 
>you say you were doing this too?), down in Texas, where they had a
few
>rooms 
>in temperaments.  I would like to encourage any caut to consider
doing
>this.  
>I have my charts( from the "Six Degrees" CD), on each door with a
one 
>paragraph description of the era of that particular tuning
developement.
>If 
>anybody wants to use them for a like project, feel free to do so.  I
think 
>this is making a real positive difference,and the students are
getting 
>enthused. 
>Regards, 
>Ed Foote RPT


_____________________________
David M. Porritt
dporritt@mail.smu.edu
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75275
_____________________________