more on this temperament thing

[Tom Servinsky]

Ed,
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't be safe to say that one of the
underlining reasons Well-Tempered and Mean Tone Tempered tunings were
mandatory in their days, irate beat structures in some of the keys were one
of the only features which demonstrated excitable sound change. By that I
mean, seeing that there was no means of changing volume in early keyboards,
coupled with the mode of composition during those days( lack of modulation)
HTs was one  mean, which in some obscure way, a tuner could illustrate
volume and excitement change.  Otherwise the early keyboards were almost
completely monolithic. The usefulness of HT in those instruments are not
arguable.
 For my tastes,  G minor in a Broadwood's Best Tuning, captures the essence
of darkness as well as anything I have ever heard.   Playing a Chopin
Nocturne in G minor sends goose bumps down my spine.  I'm less inclined to
give credit to the temperament lending itself to beauty,  but applaud more
to the genius of Chopin who had to figure and find a architecture that would
demonstrate his ideas.
But on the whole, I find a lot of the "colors" in the high # keys (E Maj, B
Maj, etc) to negate the overall beauty HTs have to offer. For that reason I
know longer make a practice of tuning HT. I've studied it, I practiced it, I
tried selling it to my clientele, and I tried selling to my PTG chapter. I
did the campaign thing trying to convert clients to HT, but except for a
few, all have requested that their instruments be put back in the
temperament they knew and understood, equal temperament.
 The big problem that I had, as well as my clientele, is trying to convince
myself why F# Major should sound pleasing and not completely distasteful, or
any of the extreme color keys for that matter.
On that note, no pun intended, I find it difficult to make the point that
HTs are inherently better and somehow bring a purer sense of musicality to
the music than ET. With today's instruments with incredible  volume and
tonal capabilities combined with an EXTREMELY WELL TUNED ET,equal
temperament is still  as an extremely refined, flexible, and finely
constructed temperament capable of demonstrating and capturing the FULL
range of music in all keys.
Now for teaching purposes, which is what  your thread is about, there's no
question that exposing earlier temperaments to studying musicians is
applaudable. This brings them one step closer to experience and understand
the  temperaments earlier composers had at  their fingertips.
I still wonder  how Chopin, Mozart, or Beethoven, would be composing if they
were in today's world playing on today's instruments. I personally feel,
they too would favor the flexibility of ET. Of course, that's pure
speculation!
Tom Servinsky,RPT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Cole" <tcole@cruzio.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2001 12:47 AM
Subject: Re: more on this temperament thing


>
>
> A440A@AOL.COM wrote:
> >
> >     For the last three years I have been giving temperament
presentations to
> > technicians and musical groups,(teachers, students, etc.).  These two
groups
> > react in very different ways, and I have altered my procedures
accordingly.
> > The techs represent a hard sell, the musicians just roll over in
epiphanies.
>
> Ed, I am both a musician and a technician and, as afar as pianos are
> concerned, the historical temperaments always strike me as out of tune -
> because the number of beats are "incorrect" to my beat-counting ears.
> The non-smooth progression of beats has always triggered that response
> in me.
>
> On another note, I used to listen to my dad play chamber music with
> friends at home when I was a child, and I loved to hear how good string
> players would alter certain pitches to express the music. But this was
> not the same as a piano tuned to HT because the flattened or sharpened
> notes would change according to the key they were playing in, the mood
> of the piece, whether they were ascending or descending the scale, etc.
> They had the ability to change their "temperament" on the fly and could
> vary the amount of sharpness or flatness to suit the moment.
>
> Getting back to the piano, an unequally tempered tuning cannot adjust as
> one modulates through a series of key changes, although it would be
> interesting to hear a keyboard that was programmed in such a manner
>
>
> > From a technical and professional standpoint, the change of temperament
is
> > viewed with extreme suspicion.  From the musician's, I have found that
> > well-temperaments excite them, stimulates a closer look at the
repertoire,
> > and gives me some input into musical expression.  This is at the root of
my
> > commitment to offering a wide variety of temperament.
> > >>I know it's not politically correct to say it, but I like ET, and the
more
> > E the better!!<<
> >    I don't think there is anything politically incorrect other than
> > condemnation of others that choose paths unlike our own.  I like ET
also,
> > just not for EVERYTHING.
> > Thanks for the note.
> > Regards,
> > Ed Foote RPT