On Jan 13, 2009, at 8:45 AM, Porritt, David wrote: > We know that Chopin had a favorite tuner though we don't know what > he tuned. We know that when he toured England and Broadwood > supplied pianos and tuning - and they were trying hard for ET - that > he didn't like it. I don't think that there is evidence that ET tendencies were stronger in England than in France in Chopin's time. In fact, the opposite is more likely, to the best of my knowledge. Rameau was a very strong early advocate of ET. France had a very strong rationalist tradition, dating particularly from the late 18th century (they were the proponents of the metric system, remember). Claude Montal's book on tuning and other aspect of the piano is very strongly pro-ET. Montal was very influential among piano circles in France in the mid 19th century, maybe on a par with Braid White in the US in the early 20th century. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico fssturm at unm.edu
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