Fw: Alternate temperaments

[Michael Gamble]

Hail fellow off-beat temperamentalists.
For Georg Friderich Haendel I use Valotti - but C# M sounds really cool.
Distinctly so. Maybe that's why Herr Haendel didn't use this key? ;-)
Regards
Michael G (UK)
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <A440A@aol.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2003 8:52 PM
Subject: Re: Alternate temperaments


>
> << 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>
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