Alternative Temperaments

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 8/25/99 8:52:08 PM Pacific Daylight Time, Clark Panaccione 
writes:

<< I would say that the 1/3 comma meantone, nearly perfectly posing as 19tet, 
is
 much more "far out" sounding than 22tet and it has been historically favored.
 
 Clark Panaccione
  >>

Interesting that you would say this.  I have done this one and know how to 
program the SAT to do it with perfect accuracy.  It is actually quite easy to 
do and I will tell you how to do it if you would like to know (not deviations 
of an FAC program).  The composer Thomas Salinas is known to have used it.  I 
would think that it would be good for funeral music.

To me, it makes music sound like a Salvador Dali painting looks.  The chords 
have a "melting" sound.  The music "oozes" out of the piano.

I consider 1/4 comma meantone to be at the opposite end of the spectrum from 
ET and 1/3 comma meantone is one big step beyond that into a different realm. 
 I would like to hear Debussy's "Pagodes" played in this temperament someday 
because I think you might really hear the "Gamelon music" effect.  It would 
completely transform the piano's sound into that of a virtual Gamelon music 
orchestra, a kind of sound totally foreign to our ears but normal to that of 
deep southeast Asia.

It is a very different and distant sound from the usual Victorian that I do 
on a daily basis.

Bill Bremmer RPT