Brown bag temperament test Re: Temperament selection (was: Franz Mohr in Moscow)

[piannaman at aol.com]

  Ed, Jon, List,
 
 Some musings on the subject...
 
 I'd be really interested in hearing more different types of temperaments compared on different types of pianos. A class comparing many different tunings might good for a convention offering. I'd certainly attend.
 
 Take, say, 10 pianos and tune them using various historical temperaments, and one to ET.
 
 Only two or three "master tuners" would know which pianos were tuned using which temperament.
 
 Another panel of HT experts would try and figure out which piano was tuned which way.
 
 The rest of us could have fun and learn alot.
 
 Yesterday one of my long-term clients gave me a copy of an book review of "How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and why you should care)" by Ross Duffin from the Wall Street Journal. While I haven't read the entire article or the book, the title makes it clear what it's about. 
 
 I explained the ongoing debate to my customer, and she was fascinated. I proceeded to tune the middle two octaves C3 to C5 on her ancient Brambach Baby using a Valotti Well as prescribed by Tunelab while she did crossword puzzles in the kitchen. I played her a string of major chords, and her face went from smiley at an F triad to scrunched up in puzzlement at the F# triad. 
 
 I ended up tuning to ET, but the merits of other temperaments shouldn't be overlooked. 
 
 Thanks for reading,
    Dave Stahl, RPT
 
  
 -----Original Message-----
 From: A440A at aol.com
 To: pianotech at ptg.org
 Sent: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 5:51 AM
 Subject: Re: Temperament selection (was: Franz Mohr in Moscow)
 
  Jon writes:



<< ET does have it's limitations on small pianos. A Well Temperament placed

on these types really does make them more sonorous. Sounding better

than you could imagine, taking the harshness and edginess out which

ET puts in. >>



         It has been related to me that a well-tempered console piano will 

sell before an identical equally tempered one right beside it.  This, from a 

store owner/technician who was initially very leary of not using ET.  I gave a 

temperament program for a local organization, and tuned a Petrof he had at the 

store.   After a weekend of trying a mild WT in the middle of all his store 

pianos, he was asking about "what kind of machine did I use to make the piano 

sound like that?"   He liked the sound, a lot.   He has since found that the WT 

smaller pianos sell first, in a store with rows of identical small pianos.  

regards, 



Ed Foote RPT 

http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
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