[CAUT] ET vs UET was RE: using as ETD

[Fred Sturm]

On Apr 19, 2010, at 7:38 AM, Laurence Libin wrote:

> Right; it's the "practical purposes" that leave leeway for adjusting  
> (compromising) ET to suit the music or the instrument or the client.  
> Few if any pre-1880 musicians would have thought in these terms  
> however, because the statement implies that ET was then the  
> established standard; I doubt it.


	I wonder on what basis you doubt that ET was the established standard  
pre-1880. I'll note that England, and to a lesser extent Italy, were  
exceptions (with survival of UET into the last decades of the 19th  
century), but in the Germanic countries and France, it is pretty clear  
from the surviving documentary evidence that ET was definitely the  
established standard, at least from the 1830s at the very latest (and  
arguably in Germany from before 1800). And those areas were the most  
musically productive at the time. (I guess I should also note that  
organs are a separate topic, due to the difficulty and expense of  
retuning, and different acoustical considerations).
	The evidence is pretty broad, from tuning instructions to  
descriptions in articles to private letters, etc. Reading these  
materials, it is clear to me that average tuners of that time were  
just as focused on ET as average tuners of 20th century USA, trying to  
make all keys sound alike. How precisely they worked, and what results  
they achieved, is an interesting question to investigate, but the  
notion of "artistic" tuning is absent from almost all the writings I  
have seen. I see very little evidence outside of 20th (and now 21st)  
century speculation to suggest that tuners adjusted or compromised ET  
on any kind of regular basis to suit music, instrument or client.  
There are a few such suggestions, but they are remarkable for their  
scarcity and for their lack of any useful detail. I don't know of any  
such sources outside the US and England - if there are German and  
French documents of this nature, please bring them to my attention.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
fssturm at unm.edu
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." Twain

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