<html> At 10:14 PM 6/23/00 -0400, Ed Foote wrote: <blockquote type=cite cite>     Then I may have poisoned my ears! (:)}}  After being immersed in non-ET for a day or so, I listen to an ET version and something is missing.  So,  since I can't define it,  I can only say that what is missing is what I am referring to as key color.  </blockquote> This is at the heart of the controversy. There is personal taste involved, and keeping an open mind to the variable tastes of musicians should help us to keep from getting locked into one way of thinking only. Similar to your experience, after hearing a recital of beautiful piano music on a well-tuned equal temperament, the mild Victorian Well I put into a piano at the office sounds, well, a little coarse and uneven when some pieces of music are played (the slow movement of the Hammerklavier, for instance - all kinds of modulations, starting and ending in f# minor. So far I have not found an unequal temperament that sets well with the mood of this piece). But after practicing on the unequal for an hour or so, I don't mind it and can appreciate it more.  I still gravitate towards the smoothness and refinement of a nicely done equal temperament without overly wide octave stretch, though. I think it might be good to equate this "adjustment factor" to that of spiciness in food.  If one eats bland food for a time, the subtleties become more apparent.  Then eating spicy food can be a little shocking! Regarding the tone color of keys, Ed, I think we tend to want to explain things scientifically and pragmatically when it is deeper than that.  As technicians we want to say that the only way a key can sound different is if the beat rates in the chords are different, but really - they sound different because they are different notes.  The emotional identities are likely created by experience, but I feel those "emotional colors" become hung on particular keys because we can, in a subtle way, hear the different keys in and of themselves, without the influence of beat rates and "temperament colors." Here is another way to look at it.  Does a person with very accurate "perfect pitch," who can sing A-440 fairly accurately every time arrive at that pitch in the same way as a piano tuner?  No - he/she has acquired (or refined) the skill to know inside what that note sounds like.  There does not need to be a reference (as with beat rates in chords) for the well trained ear, nor does there need to be one for key color recognition. I agree that the sense of key color in equal or floating (orchestral / choral) temperament tuning is related to pitch familiarity and is completely trained into us by listening to music.  I also agree that it can be enhanced by unequal temperaments, but I feel that, perhaps, we should continue to understand that this "enhancement" may not be necessary, and may actually cause us to rely on the unequalness for our musical enjoyment, overshadowing a deeper and more subtle sense of the key relationships.  If we eat jabanera salsa every day for a few months, can we taste the subtleties of the type of onion used in a meatloaf?  Then again, the spicy food eater will be much more able to enjoy the subtleties of different jabanera salsas than someone who only eats the mild foods, who will only be dying for a beer! Dare I say it; "Food for thought." ;-) I expect to continue tuning these new/old temperaments occasionally for the enjoyment of the sound, and to educate my palate so that I am able to intelligently recommend alternate temperaments when a musician is interested. Thanks for your thoughtful and well informed posts, Ed.  I enjoy reading them, and am hoping to catch your class. Don Mannino RPT</html>