Alternate temperaments

[A440A@aol.com]

<< I have my wife's piano tuned to Young's temperament.  Would this be pesky 
in a ET aural tuning situation? >>

Greetings, 
   This may be a common question, but requires a qualified answer.  Above all 
else, the expectation of the listener can have a lot to do with the 
acceptance.  
   True, the Young has a 21 cent third lurking at F#, and B and E major are 
certainly more agressive in their harmonic presentation, but whether that bears 
on the "pesky" nature of the sound also depends on the material and/or the 
way the pianist plays.  Highly tempered triads can be played harshly or 
expressively.  Increased familiarity with the well temperaments facilitates the 
latter.  

   If what you are asking is the degree of difficulty in tuning a Young 
aurally,  it is rather simple to tune six pure fifths from C in one direction, and 
then six tempered fifths in the other.  Make the tempering even among them and 
you will be very close to Young's description. 

  Young's tuning works for a lot of music.  Some later pieces, I think, 
become unsettled due to the increased tempering in unfortuate places, (like where 
the composer wasn't thinking of "expression"), but all in all, it is a very 
clean sounding tuning.  I think it really is beneficial for most music composed 
after Bach and before Chopin.  When you get on the era's boundaries, I think it 
pays to listen to other plausible alternatives, such as the meantones, 
WErckmiester, or Kirnberger, or Kellner for Bach and the "Victorian" level of 
inequality or even ET for Chopin, Ravel, Debussy, etc.  
    Somewhere in the comparisons, each of us arrives at optimum amouts of 
harmonic contrast to suit our tastes. And then, tastes change.....etc. 
   I guess the real answer to whether it would sound pesky or not can only 
come from  ourselves as we listen to the musical results and draw our own value 
judements.  
Regards,  
 
Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
 <A HREF="http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/399/six_degrees_of_tonality.html">
MP3.com: Six Degrees of Tonality</A>