jazz tuning, favoring keys not a goal

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 4/7/99 2:22:27 AM Central Daylight Time, 
o-anders@online.no writes:

<< Dear Mr Bill Bremmer
 
 Before I wrote this I told somebody on the list about not sending it because 
I
 thought maybe you get angry, and so you did.  >>

I did not get angry in the least, only responded to what you wrote.  I'm 
sorry that you interpreted anything I said in a negative way.  It does 
however demonstrate that issues of temperament provoke many people's emotions.

It may interest you to know that I am a bass player too.  I have played all 
types of music including Jazz, pop and classical.  In the last decade 
however, I have focused my musicianship on the voice and enjoy singing 
classical, popular and folk music.

Your English is not bad.  When I read it, I "hear" your Swedish accent.  We 
now have a new member of the List from Mexico.  If I write in Spanish, I only 
hope that my Spanish will be as good as your English.  I often think of 
temperament issues as being analogous to language issues.  There are many 
people in the United States who want only English to be used.  They will say 
that you have the right to speak Spanish or any other language at home but in 
public, only English should be seen or heard.

Any argument for English only or ET only can seem logical and justifiable but 
the inevitable reality is that Spanish will become so commonly written and 
spoken in the United States that most people will eventually learn it, just 
as you have learned English.  Those who have a good command of more than one 
language have an entirely different perspective of the world, people and 
culture than those who know only their native tongue.  

A piano technician who can tune multiple temperaments likewise has an 
entirely different perspective than one who knows only one way to tune.  It 
is also inevitable that many kinds of temperaments will become popular in the 
future.  We are seeing the beginnings of multiple temperament use now but 
only by a very few and there is much resistance, ignorance and intolerance.  
If you learn how to tune a good Well-Tempered tuning, I am sure that you will 
find that it "favors" the flat keys as you have theorized.

Changing the temperament of a piano does not change the music you play on it. 
 It changes the way a piano can express it. If you never have any experience 
but one, over and over, you cannot really understand any others.

The fact is that there is virtually no music which *requires* ET.  When you 
choose ET, you have made an arbitrary decision to give that piano one 
particular kind of sound.  Yes, all music will work on it.  All music can 
also work with many other (but of course not any and all) kinds of 
temperaments.

The challenge therefore, is for the modern technician to learn and understand 
which kinds of effects can be produced by manipulating the piano in various 
ways.  To shut out any and all other possibilities but the most ordinary 
deprives both performers and listeners of all that the piano has to offer.

Sincerely,
Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin