List: For me personally, I like ET. If the soprano is having a bad throat day the piece in G can be moved to Gb without changing the whole character of the piece. There are some advantages to ET. On the other hand I think some concerts can be enhanced by using some of the historical temperaments. In December, Jeffrey Siegel did a concert at SMU of all Beethoven. I asked him if he would like to use a historical temperament like a Youngs. Since sound only travels at 1020 feet per second, his "NO" answer was out before my last sounds made it to his ear. If an artist doesn't want to use a historical temperament for a program of all pre-ET music, he certainly won't want to use one for a program that includes Beethoven et al AND Ravel & Poulenc. ET is the only thing that will give a reasonable performance of older and contemporary music IMHO. Having said that, if a performer wants some different temperament, I want to be the one who can deliver for him/her. dave _______________________________________________ David M. Porritt, RPT Meadows School of the Arts Southern Methodist University Dallas, Texas _______________________________________________
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