Equal Temperament, Oh really, what else is news?

[antares]

Yes, 
David Love,

For years and years now I have read this continual and aggressive raving and
ranting against the tuning most tuners in the world use. It now sounds to me
like the story of Don Quichotte, fighting the wind mills in a clattering and
rusty armor.
The story of Don Quichotte is, according to me, definitely worth while
reading and an education.
However, because of the fact that this story (continually told here on this
list, about the miserable tuning everybody in the world uses) indeed is
accompanied in a condescending, arrogant and vitriolic manner makes me want
to throw the book away.


friendly greetings
from

Antares,

Amsterdam, Holland

"where music is, no harm can be"

visit my website at :  http://www.concertpianoservice.nl/


> From: "David Love" <davidlovepianos@earthlink.net>
> Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 10:09:49 -0800
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Subject: Re: Equal Temperament, Oh really, what else is news?
> 
> I don't think I would analogize this individual as someone trying to
> demonstrate that we didn't go to the moon.  He too is a CTE and an objective
> and academic sort without an agenda to push.  It's unfortunate that the
> discussion can't take place without so much vitriol and politics.
> 
> David Love
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Billbrpt@AOL.COM
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Sent: February 21, 2002 9:00 AM
> Subject: Re: Equal Temperament, Oh really, what else is news?
> 
> 
> In a message dated 2/21/02 10:18:57 AM Central Standard Time,
> davidlovepianos@earthlink.net (David Love) writes:
> 
> 
> 
> There is a local composer/technician who has apparently done extensive
> research and found documentation suggesting that ET, contrary to popular
> belief, was actually being used pre-1800.  He has done a few presentations on
> this subject and though I haven't personally heard them, it certainly adds
> fuel to the fire, doesn't it.
> 
> David Lov
> e 
> 
> Yes, and there are people who are still trying to prove that we never went to
> the moon, either, even though it would have been much more difficult to fake
> it. 
> 
> I don't believe this is true because tuning a really and truly Equal
> Temperament is as difficult to do by ear as isdrawing a perfectly straight
> line free hand without a ruler.  It is not impossible but very few can really
> do it.  Add to that, the information we have now was not known back then and
> the instruments they had back then were far more unstable than today's.
> 
> Research, research and research, trying to find some thread of "proof" that
> somebody tuned in a way that nobody wanted back then all you want, it just is
> not true.  People will call anything "equal" if they want to and that's where
> the real truth of the matter lies.  It was called something it was not.  If
> they were really trying for ET, that's all they were doing is trying.  When
> everything sounded "kinda sorta pretty even"  (as a retired conductor used to
> call it), and there were no obvious "sour" sounds, then it was ET.  That's the
> way my EBVT or Jim Coleman's WT's sound and they are most decidedly *not* ET.
> 
> I've also been researching for years too.  I don't bring this up very often
> because every time I do, I get accused of "unethical advertising".  But as a
> CTE for over 10 years now, I have seen and heard everything, both in and out
> of the exam room.  Very few people are able to score a 100 in the temperament
> and midrange.  Even if they do, the tolerances can still allow for audible
> inequality.  Calculated elctronic programs are only as good as the accuracy of
> programming, the scale design of the piano and the aural correction of the two
> afterwards are.  But it's ET if you say it is or you mean it to be, so it
> seems. 
> 
> As far as I'm concerned, ET has always been and will always be a theoretical
> idea which is not worth pursuing.
> 
> Bill Bremmer RPT 
> Madison, Wisconsin
> Click here: -=w w w . b i l l b r e m m e r . c o m =-
>