Another Recital in 1/7 Comma Meantone

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 4/11/00 9:54:36 AM Central Daylight Time, richardb@c2i.net 
(Richard Brekne) writes:

<< He SHOULDA been doing one this summer but he let himself get all bent out 
of shape
 over basically nothing more then petty BS that we all have to deal with from 
time
 to time. A shame really because very many were looking forward to looking 
closer at
 what he has to say.
 
 Sorry Bill, but I still think you made a bad move there. >>

Richard,

I had been asked to present the EBVT in a Minitech, not teach a class in how 
to tune the 1/7 Comma Meantone.  The last time the 1/7 Comma Meantone was 
presented at a Convention, an angry mob of right-thinking, morally upstanding 
ET tuners confronted Kent Webb causing him to never again consider having a 
piano tuned at a Convention in ANYTHING but ET.

This was also followed by me receiving a threatening letter from an RPT in 
Los Angeles who said that there were several technicians who "knew what I was 
up to and wanted it stopped".  The following year, a guy confronted me and 
condemned what I had done all through the awards banquet saying that he had 
attended that recital and that I had "hurt" his and his friends ears with my 
"unethical conduct" and for this, I should be "kicked out" of PTG. 

Many PTG members consider what I do every day to be unethical and  a 
violation of Common Law subject to civil, if not criminal penalties.  It's 
only a matter of time before lawsuits will put me out of business and the 
criminal convictions will put me in prison. As Jon Page likes to put it, 
"STRING HIM UP!".

Ed Foote, who is well known for the accuracy of his surveys, claims that one 
out of two people who attended that 1/7 Comma Meantone recital confirmed to 
him that the piano sounded "out of tune".  He also claimed that the crowd who 
gathered around it afterwards were not in fact interested in listening to the 
various intervals and how they differed from the usual way a piano is tuned 
but were gawking at a disaster, the way that people gawk at a car crash or a 
burning building.  Notice that the 1/7 Comma Meantone is not on Ed's short 
List of preferred temperaments.  If Ed Foote doesn't like it, it must not be 
any good.

Now, as for the EBVT, Ed Foote's proclamation still holds:  No one has EVER 
been able to tune it other than myself.  According to Conrad, this is because 
the instructions are unreadable.  NO ONE can follow them.  NO ONE can tune a 
5th so that it beats a 1 beat per second.  NO ONE can tune a subsequent 3rd 
that beats at 6 beats per second.  NO ONE can then tune a 6th so that it 
beats exactly the same as that 3rd.  Then NO ONE can tune another 3rd so that 
it beats exactly the same as that previous 3rd and 6th.  NO ONE can then tune 
a pure 5th, then a pure 4th.  NO ONE can tune a 4th or 5th so that you have 2 
intervals that beat exactly the same as one another, NO ONE.

As Ed Foote says, the only way that ANYONE will ever be interested in tuning 
any kind of temperament other than ET is if they can do it with deviations of 
an FAC program.  Since I never do that, I don't teach that.  So what I do, 
whatever that is,  it is not worth teaching, in Ed Foote's opinion.  He 
knows, he took a survey and found that out.  He right, of course, NO ONE to 
date, has EVER tried the EBVT and EVER been successful at tuning it.  NO ONE 
will ever even try.

Then, there is the issue after all, that I went "around" and made up my own 
temperament.  What gives me the idea that I have the right to do that, hmmm?  
Why couldn't I have just used one out of a book like everyone else?  What 
makes me think I know more than all of those people who designed all of those 
hundreds of temperaments that have already been published, hmmm?  Never mind 
that after having seen I had done that, Jim Coleman went "around" and 
invented 16 of them.  They are all on Ed Foote's approved list of 
temperaments you can do "by the numbers", the ONLY way anyone will ever be 
interested in trying.

No manufacturer would ever DARE to have its piano tuned in anything but ET, 
of course.  Any HT type tuning is only for curiosity.  See how WEIRD that 
sounds?  Now YOU wouldn't want to tune a piano THAT way, would you?  Any 
alternative tunings would have to be done on off-brand pianos off in some 
corner someplace during lunch on Thursday because the only possible purpose 
for tuning a piano in an alternative way is to prove that ET is the one and 
only proper way to tune a piano.  Therefore, any piano that is "experimented" 
with in this manner must be tuned back, BACK, BACK!!! to ET!!!

Last, but not least, if I were to be tuning a piano at the Convention, I 
would surely have Wally Brooks and who knows else there again harassing me, 
telling me that I am "tuning the piano out of tune, using a "hysterical 
temperament"  (hardee har har) and that the only reason I go "around" tuning 
this way is because I can't really tune in ET.

As I see it, there is not enough room for me and the rest of PTG at the same 
Convention.  I do not have anything to do, say or teach that would really 
interest anyone else so therefore I am not going.  Just ask Wim Blees.  He 
claims to "have a lot of influence" and says that I should not write on this 
List at all and if I attend the Convention, no one will speak to me.  I 
really believe in and follow all of Wim's advice, you know.  I consider every 
word he writes as PTG's ultimate example of wisdom and erudition.

Sorry to disappoint you.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin