Temperament selection

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Scott writes:

<< Can you expand upon "a mild WT"? >>

        I will be glad to try to define "mild", but it is not unlike asking 
cooks how much salt is needed.  The right amount varies. 
        It may be efficient to visualize temperaments as palettes of 
"roughness", and regardless of what is on them, the extremes define the nature of the 
temperament.  Virtually all WT's share the progressive increase of tempering 
in the thirds as one progresses around the circle of fifths.  A WT that has a 
pure C-E will have a lot of dissonance to put somewhere else.  A milder WT will 
have a more tempered C-E and less "brilliance" or "color" or to use a 18th 
cen. term, "Expression"  in the keys on the opposite side of the circle of 
fifths. 
      I consider a tuning whose widest third is 18 cents to be a mild 
temperament.  One has to accept a C-E tempered around 8 cents to do this, but this 
small amount of change to exact equal is enough to make a significant musical 
difference, especially on a spinet or console piano that is NEVER played in F#.  
 The Moore and Company tuning from Jorgensen is the mildest that I use, but I 
also use a lot of Coleman 11.  
        Some tuners, having developed their tastes even farther, prefer to 
use far more dramatic departures in their temperament.  To them, the WT's are 
"mild", and the 



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