No EBVT at Convention

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 3/27/00 5:37:40 PM Central Standard Time, 
btrout@desupernet.net writes:

<< Might I suggest you take some time to think about the root causes of why
 people seem to be against your ideas.  >>

Not everyone is, of course, Bryan and I'm really sorry, as I said,  that you 
won't get the benefit of it.  Ed Foote has long been known to have been 
critical of the "Madison kooks", long before I ever wrote on this List.  I 
came to this List knowing what to expect and I surely did get it and yes, I 
returned the fire.  I can do it better than any of them and I didn't mind 
proving it at all.  When I tuned the 1/7 Comma Meantone at the Convention in 
Albuquerque, 1995, Mr. Foote made it a point to tell me then and there that 
he did not like it.  I'm sure he spread his opinion around pretty thickly too.

Now of course, he is entitled to his opinion and to say whatever he wants 
just as you and I are.  But Mr. Foote sets himself up as some kind of leader 
of the HT practice.  He often makes it sound as if his opinion is the rule of 
law.  Any temperament labelled a "Meantone" is out of the question as far as 
he is concerned.  It wouldn't play in Nashville.  The problem is that the 
requirements for that recording industry are often very rigid and do not at 
all apply and would often be inappropriate to most any other circumstance.

So, as many have come to feel about most anything I say, I feel about what Ed 
Foot does and says.  I disagree.  We have heard Ed Foote's CD here in Madison 
and do not accept it as a groundbreaking acheivement in HT tuning.  I have 
already used what I consider to be the fitting description of it and what it 
stands for.  And yes, Ed did threaten to slug me and I told him I wouldn't 
forget about it either, just as I haven't forgotten his description on this 
List of what the 1/7 Comma Meantone sounds like.

It seems that Ed would like all other HT tuners to support his efforts and 
yes, I agree that he has done much and that his class will be interesting and 
important.  But if I am to support his work, I cannot do so when in writing, 
on this very List, and publicly, he dismisses and ridicules mine and others 
who live where I do.  In my view, that is being a traitor.  This is not a 
matter of mere name calling.

I'm even willing to accept what Ed has said in one instance as fact.  No one, 
no one at all has ever been able to tune the piano the way I do, not even 
him.  If I were to go to the Convention and give the class, still no one 
would ever be able to duplicate it.  Ed cannot tune the EBVT so he takes the 
easy way out and dismisses and ridicules it. He does not have a grasp of the 
important differences there are between what I do and what Jim Coleman RPT 
has done but promotes the one and denigrates the other purely for personal 
reasons.

If you read the two posts that precede yours, you will see that beyond the 
spurning by that one individual who exhibited the prejudiced behavior well 
before I ever wrote on this List and the very first time he ever met me, that 
I am right when I say that the majority of PTG is not ready for it.  It would 
be the same no matter who proposed it.  I am simply not as shy as many other 
people might be and usually do not back down in the face of bigotry and the 
kind of confrontations that are associated with it.  I am sure that there 
will be a whole list of short, smirky remarks, each one by someone who knows 
nothing at all about what I do and will never be able to do it.

The reason I was seeking a performance venue for the EBVT is so that you and 
everyone who might be interested or curious could hear it in the proper 
environment: A concert or recital hall setting with a high quality concert 
grand and a skilled, talented artist playing the finest of music.  This 
cannot be done in a small room on a small piano during a 45 minute Minitech.  
Basically, only samples can be played and only information can be conveyed.

There is no "conspiracy" as such but there is a basic, underlying feeling 
among the piano manufacturers and technicians alike that the very notion of 
anything but ET is unacceptable.  The leaders among the manufacturers will 
not permit artists to be exposed to HT concepts.  There is a fear that it 
will only "open a can of worms" or "Pandora's Box" or some other kind of 
unforeseen calamity.  If the idea that there is one way and one way only to 
tune a piano can be pushed and maintained, anything else will be seen as 
folly.

As I mentioned in my original post, I have an invitation to both tune and 
perform during that same time period and was unhappy that I would not be able 
to.  The spurning by the manufacturer's rep and the inevitable jeers and 
sneers I get from people I don't even know and have never communicated with 
make it an easy decision to let the PTG Convention go.

I am quite sure that even if I had been able to do a public performance that 
was very well received, there would have been still enough of the negativity, 
the Ed Foote editorial dismissal perhaps, to ruin the entire experience 
anyway.  The loudest, most negative comments always come from those who do 
not know what they are talking about.  It is so unfortunate that those are 
the people that get the attention.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin