In a message dated 6/14/00 7:53:36 AM Central Daylight Time, drwoodwind@hotmail.com (Ron Koval) writes: << I went and looked up the numbers for Augustus DeMorgan (1843) temperament. >> Thanks Ron, I was hoping you would do this. Your graphs help a lot and are unique. I've never seen temperaments illustrated in quite the same, revealing way. Your graph reveals that the DeMorgan is not exactly an inverted Well-Temperament because, as it appears, Bb, Eb and F appear to be the most dissonant rather than F, C & G. However, the more I study it, the more it really seems like a temperament created entirely in error, as if the person tuning it knew nothing about the effects of the beat rates of the 3rds. Yet, I assume that it was done deliberately. The question I have is why would anyone really want this? Unless, as it was explained to me, it is really meant for someone who is so used to the sound created by an erroneously constructed temperament and has learned to compensate for it in the playing that it suits the handicap. Last December, I attended a theater production of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" where many familiar Christmas songs were played in the simple keys on a piano tuned in Reverse Well. Can you imagine "Silent Night" being played in this De Morgan? To me, Chopin, Debussy and Ravel played in the De Morgan would sound just as inappropriate because the music would have most of the energy and tension it was meant to have taken away. The pianist could only compensate by playing louder and faster. Is this any kind of improvement? Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin
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