Temperament selection

[Andrew and Rebeca Anderson]

I think we are talking about two different things here.  In ET the 
tempering is equally distributed.  In WT or unequal temperaments it 
is not equally distributed.  As a result, in WTs there are a number 
of intervals (and especially, their partials) that are more consonant 
than the same intervals in ET.  This greater consonance is obvious 
when you re-tune a piano.  This is what attracts people to one piano 
over another.

The discussion goes on then to mild versus "aggressive" WTs as in 
Mild=close to ET and less "Mild" further from ET.  WTs all are 
supposed to be circulating--that is you should find all keys playable 
to varying degrees of "expressiveness"..  As such WTs are never as 
consonant or "aggressive" as Meantone, Just Major or Minor.  In WTs 
the tempering is distributed, usually, with more of the tempering 
showing up in the "exotic" keys.  C Major historically was kept the 
purest and as you progressed away from it around the circle of fifths 
the tempering increased.  The purer any key is, the more tempering 
there is to dispel to other keys.  There really is a window in which 
you can tune that people will find thirds acceptable.  Wider for some 
than others.  This is an entirely different discussion from how 
increased consonance in a piano affects people's perception of that 
piano.    It is about how much tempering people will find 
acceptable.  I don't like Young's temperament because of the D flat F 
natural third, it is too common in music to sound that wild, to my 
ear.  I like other WTs that appear on paper to be as rough are more 
but do it in different ways.  I routinely tune pianos to mild WTs 
without mentioning it and people love my tuning.    I keep some 
pianos in my studio on a Moore representative Victorian and they are 
interesting, especially when playing scales and cadences.  When my 
wife was working on some Bach repertoire I tuned her piano to Barnes 
Bach.  When she had to prepare some Debussy she asked me to change 
it, because Debussy's use of dissonance tended to grind in that 
temperament.  Use of a more aggressive WT may tend to limit the 
repertoire that sounds acceptable for some individuals which is what 
Ed seems to be discussing in his description of acceptable versus 
unacceptable thirds.

Andrew Anderson

At 02:57 PM 4/14/2007, you wrote:
>The only problem with that argument is that on one hand you are arguing that
>a WT piano will seem to have greater sonority than an ET one which I would
>attribute to the impact of the keys in which the 3rds are more pure.  Then
>you are arguing that listeners will not register a faster third as "out of
>tune" until it reaches a certain limit.  While I agree that there is a
>window, you can't have it both ways.  If you argue that WTs sound more
>sonorous than ET and that people respond to that difference then it is the
>slower beating thirds which are responsible for that, even if they are only
>slightly more slowly beating.  By the same token it would then stand to
>reason that if you played in keys on the backside of the circle of
>fifths--those keys with 4 or more sharps and flats--that those keys would
>sound less sonorous, which is what I hear.  While the contrast may create a
>more unpredictable and therefore interesting palette, I think it can be
>misleading to use the sonority argument as there is both greater and lesser
>sonority depending on the key.  Also, I find it somewhat contradictory to
>say that people can both hear the difference and respond to it but don't
>really register the difference at the same time.
>
>That being said, I do find that WTs offer something interesting and
>versatile when not taken too far.
>
>David Love
>davidlovepianos at comcast.net
>www.davidlovepianos.com
>
>
>
>
>            But really, the question is how much tempering can a third take
>before it becomes a liability rather than an asset.  Few musicians or
>listeners
>register a faster third as "out of tune" until it exceeds some limit.  That
>limit is, in some degree, dependant on the listener's expectation.  It is
>amazing how little notice is given to the change of temperament if nothing
>is said,
>but how huge a thing it is becomes if somebody becomes intimidated by their
>fear of the unknown.  I haven't really heard music that sounded better in
>ET,
>unless it was some 20th century compositions and some jazz,(though, many
>jazz
>players and songwriters around here are real happy to play in the WT
>environment.
>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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