more on this temperament thing

[Tom Servinsky]

Dave,
Me too.
Tom Servinsky,RPT
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David M. Porritt" <dm.porritt@verizon.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2001 10:30 AM
Subject: Re: more on this temperament thing


> 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
> _____________________________
>