HTs using cents offset from ET

[A440A@aol.com]

Greetings, 
Robert writes:
>Having a "cents offset from ET" method for tuning an HT serves a
>real need.  It allows someone with an electronic tuning aid to quickly
>jump into the HT arena - something they might have otherwise been
>reluctant to do 

    I agree 100%.  The developement of electronic tuning will be seen as the
greatest boon to temperament variety in the history of temperament!   
    Of course, as the piano went through its development stages, the varieties
of meantone overlapped, and in the late 1700's one could conceivably have
heard the various styles of well temperament alongside meantone tunings, but
that is not comparable to today, when recorded music allows instantaneous side
by side comparisons of all of these with ET. 
    Few technicians, in the course of making a living, investigated the work
of M. Barbour and Owen Jorgensen.  There is simply not enough time to polish
the wide variety of tunings to professional level.  Thus, the combination of
Jorgensen's work with the tools of today, (RCT, Tunelab, SAT, etc) provide us
with a very easy way to recreate the tonalities of the past. The re-
introduction of the Well Temperaments to today's students will have its
musical effect down the road, as perhaps composers will write music influenced
by older tonalities.  Who knows?  
   An easy way to use Jorgensen's off-set numbers is simply to use a straight
FAC tuning, but tuning all like notes from one offset,  i.e.   if you want a
Theoretically correct Handel temperament, just take a FAC for the piano in
question, and then add 4.5 cents in the pitch change function and tune all the
C's.  Next zero the machine, reset it to  add +2.4 cents and tune all the Bbs.
repeat this for each of the 8 remaining notes( no change to the A and D) and
you will have a temperament that obeys all the descriptions Jorgensen puts
forth in his book.  
    I have followed the aural path Owen describes on several of his
temperaments, then comparing them to temperaments derived from the offset
numbers, and the use of the offsets from a FAC are so close to the aural that
any differences are negligible.  The inharmonicity-caused differences are far
below the threshold of notice,( did not a room full of technicians fail to
notice that Jim Coleman put a well temperament on a test piano last year?  Do
we need to debate the changes of less than 1 cent on the tonal balance of a
temperament?  I suggest no.....) . So,  with the availability of the ETD's why
use the aural shovel when there is a electronic back-hoe available?  
    Also, if one is doing research on audience and artist responses,  the
tunings must be consistant, and the use of a ETD produces a more consistant
temperament than the ear, ( on a given piano).  
    As I have stated before,  technology drives intonation, and todays
technology is laying the groundwork for tomorrows approach to intonation and
temperament.  The SAT III and others like it, will allow conversion of any FAC
to a historical temperament with ease, and I think, will cause far more
exposure to the HT's than before.  
Here's hoping, 
Regards, 
Ed Foote