Ed, It's going to take a lot more than a music reviewer to educate the unwashed masses as to the merits of historical temeraments. Don't get me wrong, I would love for the revolution to come, but from my experience, even the most sophisticated of musicians are slow to appreciate the advantages, and the average tuning customer responds with a blank stare. Worse still, if a customer learns about historical tuning and wants to try it, he is usually confronted by a tuner who quashes the idea. If historical tunings gain in popularity, it will be because they are sold by tuners working to follow up on interest generated by newspaper articles and recordings such as your CD. It is to the tuners advantage to be able to respond to this interest. Lets face it, historical temperaments are another product to offer the customer. If a tuner has a full repertoire of temperaments, he has just that much more to sell, and is that much more competitive. The only reason I see for tuners to resist this logic is that most have spent years learning to aurally tune a decent equivalent to ET, and see no reason to spend years to learn other temperaments for which they may have little use. With the advent of computerized VTDs, this argument goes out the window. Anyone with a VTD, who can tune ET, can, with a day or two of experimentation tune just about any other temperament. As you point out, Jorgensen's book gives all the info needed. So, the bad news is that historical temperaments won't get much play (pun intended) unless tuners take an active interest. The good news is that it is to the tuners' advantage to encourage an increased interest in historical temperaments, and, even better news, in this day and age, it's easy enough to learn to tune them. Frank Weston ---------- > From: A440A <A440A@aol.com> > To: pianotech@ptg.org > Subject: Re: Re: Saddest O of the Week > Date: Friday, January 16, 1998 6:23 PM > > Greetings, > I said, > <<>(hope the Village Voice article this week doesn't make any of y'all's lives > >more complicated, but we better all start dusting off our Jorgensen! > > Conrad asks: > >Which village would that be, and/or where can one access said article? > > The "Village Voice" is a New York City publication. It was one of the > first alternative newspapers, but is now its own institution. If there is a > bookstore, or newstand that carries a lot of variety, you may find it there. > Kyle Gann, the reviewer who writes in the "Voice" is sold on temperaments, > and he, like myself, sees a coming revolution in tuning. We, as tuners, need > to be the agents of this change. > Regards, > Ed Foote
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC