Ed's rant on temperament-does it matter?

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 3/13/99 3:31:00 PM Central Standard Time, A440A@AOL.COM
writes:

<< The concept of a 'reverse well temperament' depends on accepting that
 micro-deviations have the capacity to make fundamental changes in a tuning's
 harmonic nature.  I don't agree with this.  It appears that audiences don't
 make this distinction and I don't think the magnitude is such that modern
ears
 register it.  Yes, by clinical standards, the favoring of the simpler key
 fifths can cause there to be more beating in those key's thirds, but not on a
 discernible scale for the overwhelming majority. 
       Aside from the one in a thousand that can tell the difference between
 reverse and normal ET, this is not a matter that bears consideration, IMO.
It
 is just not a practical distinction for use in the workaday world of useful
 tunings,  and is certainly no reason to label the ET as currently sold as
 invalid and indicative of ignorance.   >>

I agree that most listeners will not be able to tell that a tuning might be
Reverse Well, it is what they hear so often, they just accept it.  But if it
is true that it doesn't matter at all, then why would it make any difference
when *you* carefully construct a temperament?

Do you really think an audience could hear no distinction between a piano that
you have tuned the way you feel is best and one which has the kinds of errors
in temperament that I have identified?  Granted, they would not usually have
the opportunity to make any comparison.  Some people will really like the way
you tune though, just like the guy you just told us about.  The same guy might
easily have given up on someone else who makes the Reverse Well error without
really being able to say what the difference is, just that he likes your
tuning better.

I don't think you could expect the general public to be aware of these
distinctions consciously.  The temperament is only one of the many important
parts of the overall sound of a piano.  Good technicians don't make the
Reverse Well error whether they are aware of  the term or not.

Bill Bremmer, RPT
Madison, Wisconsin