Young Well Temperament

[A440A]

Bill writes:
<<I suspected as he did
that Ed's "Young" was very much compromised.   
>Our ultimate goal is to produce a piano which is very much in tune,
>regardless of temperament.  In this case, I believe Ed took the raw Young
>temperament and "honed" it until he felt that it would not have any sounds
>which might shock the pianist, the recording engineers or the eventual
>listeners.  

    Not quite.   I honed the Sat-stored ET tuning of this piano, making sure
that my temperament was as close to North Bennet standards as possible and
that my octaves were stretched like I like them,  then altered that tuning
strictly by the numbers given in Owen's book, (pg 264). 
    Playing the Waldstein on earlier temperaments destroys a continuity of
harmonic progression that impressed me.  Yes, in a modified meantone there
were more dramatic colors evidenced, but the overall flow of the music was
disrupted, IMHO.     I like the way that measure 35 uses the contrast of E to
the 6 measures of B tonality that precede it.  And the color of this theme
sounds right to me with this much tempering.  
      In the Waldstein's 2nd mvt, there are passages that move through quite a
range of tonal steps, (ms. 10-15)  The sizes of these steps, and how they
related to an overall "feel" of this section, were considerations for the
choice of temperament.   	  
      The comparison to visual art would have us considering how much color a
Monet canvas could use. Perhaps not as much as a VanGogh, but the actual
intensity of the color is only a component.    More is not always better,
because in the greater scheme of things, balance is the deciding factor.     
Regards, 
Ed Foote