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According to Ed Foote, Jean Baptiste Romieu's 1/7 Comma Meantone Temperament
of 1755 makes Beethoven sound like a disaster, like a car crash or a burning
building. he has maintained this opinion now for 7 long years, never giving
in to the obvious fact that an 18th Century temperament belongs with music
from an 18th Century composer. He claims that fully 50% of listeners would
never know the difference from it and ET yet the other 50% would be so
outraged by it that they would renounce the use of all HT's altogether,
forevermore and would never allow an HT to be used at a recital at a
Convention again.
Owen Jorgensen's first publication, Tuning the Historical Temperaments by Ear
has many temperament gems. Unfortunately, however, for those who cannot tune
by ear, it is of little use. The heavy handed promotion of the "tune by
numbers" method with an arbitrary 7th octave boost is now the most popular
trend, according to the Foote. He says most tuners today couldn't do it any
other way.
Well, I don't know where this Foote has been but I've used the 1/7 Comma
Meantone for the very same and other Beethoven pieces, as well as other
Romantic literature many, many times over since 1995 and so have some other
local people, all of whom tune by ear. It was only at its first PTG
appearance, the year that a mad mob condemned its use to a visibly shaken
Kent Webb, that a PTG member grabbed me by the collar at the banquet and a
"concert tuner" wrote me a threatening letter saying, "we know what you are
doing and want it STOPPED" that anyone at all ever said anything negative
about it.
I still have the tape of that event and still don't hear what the Foote and
any of the others heard who didn't like it. Even the late John Travis
approached me that evening with praise, wanting to know the details. The
Foote would have you believe that the lingering crowd who tested and listened
to intervals all were there to see and hear just how *bad* it was. I guess
we are supposed to believe that when the Foote talks, people listen.
To date, the Foote has never tuned the 1/7 Comma Meantone for the simple
reason that he cannot. I would never make a decision about what or what not
to say or to tune or not tune based upon the opinion of someone whose entire
approach reminds me of the character, Uncle Tom and who is totally
*dependant* upon the use of an ETD to determine both temperament and octaves.
I'll be tuning the 1/7 Comma Meantone for a Steinway B customer today, thank
you and at his request. He plays mostly Chopin and Debussy but certainly
does have Beethoven in his repetoire. Perhaps the Foote would like to share
his opinion with this fine musician that what I will be offering as my line
of work is nothing more than an out of tune piano.
As I recall, I've heard plenty of people say and have seen plenty of people
write that the Foote's rendering sound out of tune. They don't to me, they
just aren't what I would ever do.
}:P
<<In the years since that 1/7Comma fiasco (in 1995!) I have given more
than a few temperament presentations, and have NEVER had anyone come up to me
and say that they remembered that convention Baldwin sounding good. On the
contrary, numerous technicians have remarked that after the Milwaukee and
Alberqureque conventions, in which Bremmer tunings were on display, they had
decided to leave the subject alone. The major part of my efforts since has
been to undo the negative image of temperaments that seems to have arisen in
response to yourself.
So, your claim that a "great majority" was impressed rings hollow with
me. I only responded to the topic after you attempted to blame the rancor on
a very small minority that was "in conspiracy" to discredit you. That is
total hogwash, the negative reactions were in response to a poor choice of
temperament for the program. The Beethoven didn't sound like a car crash,
it sounded like music played on an out of tune piano.
Ed Foote RPT >>
Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin
<A HREF="http://www.billbremmer.com/">Click here: -=w w w . b i l l b r e m m e r . c o m =-</A>
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