Non-ETs; more organic than ET?

[gordon stelter]

Thanks Don,
    Another benefit of ET, I suspect, is that it
allows for some wondrous, complex chords such as those
we jazzers ( and Debussiers  ) enjoy, which would
probably sound wretched in a "Historical" temperament.
   Anyone care to differ ???
     Thump

 
--- "Don A. Gilmore" <eromlignod@kc.rr.com> wrote:
> I may be an engineer, but I'm also an advanced,
> conservatory-trained pianist
> of some 32 years experience (I started at the
> conservatory when I was eight
> in 1972) and  I come from a line of five generations
> of professional
> musicians (my grandfather was a famous jazz
> bandleader, singer and
> saxophonist in Kansas City).  That's more than can
> be said for most tuners.
> 
> What was heard in Mozart's day was inferior, just as
> automobiles of 1915
> were inferior to the ones today.  Mozart didn't play
> in a primitive
> temperament because he wanted to; he did because
> there wasn't a better way
> yet.  There is a concrete, musical reason why
> virtually all instruments are
> tuned to ET and it has nothing to do with the
> "tidiness" of mathematics (and
> ET isn't constucted with a rational number, by the
> way).  ET is the *only*
> temperament where everyone plays the same intervals
> within a key and in all
> the keys all the time.  There is no other.  In *all*
> other systems *no* two
> keys sound alike.  In *all* other systems you cannot
> have equal consonance
> for all intervals, even in the same key.  If you
> flatten the E in the major
> third between C and E to be more consonant, the
> resulting third from E to G#
> will not be the same...in fact it will be *worse*
> than ET.  And all other
> intervals that include that E will be changed by
> varying degrees.  I have
> played in other temperaments and it is a pain in the
> ass, especially when
> accompanying other instruments.
> 
> ET wasn't foisted upon the musical community by
> dastardly engineers,
> politicians, or by divine decree; it was invented
> *by* musicians and has
> been universally adopted because WE LIKE IT and
> because it solves the many
> problems and limitations you experience if you don't
> use it.  I AM a
> musician.  ET vastly simplifies music for us and
> lets us all play and
> modulate with complete freedom.  Any other
> temperament is a gimmick, like
> titanium golf clubs or a six-string bass guitar.  A
> $500 cue isn't going to
> make you shoot pool any better and a fancy tuning
> isn't going to make you
> sound any better.
> 
> Don
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "David M. Porritt" <dm.porritt@verizon.net>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2004 1:17 PM
> Subject: Re: Non-ETs; more organic than ET?
> > Engineers (who are not always the most artistic
> lot) tend to think that if
> a temperament can be constructed with a rational
> number it must be right.
> However, if one wants to hear what Mozart was
> hearing you can't use ET.  Of
> course hearing what Mozart heard might not be
> important to you, but if it
> is................
> >
> > dave
> 
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