In a message dated 1/8/00 5:59:53 AM Pacific Standard Time, A440A@AOL.COM writes: << >Can you possibly recommend any tuners or technicians that you know, or >know of, in the Southern California area who might be experienced, or at >least sympathetic, to non-ET tuning? <snip> Los Angeles proper (I live in a suburb just east of downtown). Hmmm, I suppose no one in the Yellow Pages is screaming about their wide temperament variety out there! (:) >> No, Ed, they are not. In fact, I got one of the meanest, most threatening letters I have ever received from an RPT there who encountered a piano that Owen Jorgensen had tuned in 1/4 Comma Meantone at a Convention. Naturally, this *unequal* temperament had to be tuned *back* to ET before anybody else might run across it and have a heart attack, convulsion or stroke. And, it was assumed that the only person who could ever have been responsible for such reprehensible conduct was little ol' me. I was informed in no uncertain terms that there was a certain "style" of tuning that was expected these days and that style was ET. I was also told that I had better not try this ever again in the future because there was a group of "us" who knew what I was trying to do and would see to it that corrective action would be taken. Needless to say, I found the threat amusing if only slightly disturbing. I travel out there at least once a year to visit family and of course, I tune all of the pianos I tune in something other than ET. I haven't been shot at yet. I seem to recall a story about André-Michel Schub who upon requesting a Werkmeister Temperament (an example of an artist who actually asked for something other than ET), was told, "Forget it, you're getiing ET!" Happy New Year. Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin
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