Temperament, A pianist responds

[Tvak@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 12/12/01 2:33:30 AM, Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no writes:

<< One simply has to remember that ET on the piano was just not available at 
the
time, certainly not like we know it today. >>

Correct me if I'm wrong about this, but it has been my impression that tuners 
of past eras were ATTEMPTING to tune ET and didn't have the proper approach 
to execute it.  I believe someone described their approach as "melodic", 
listening to two tones in succession instead of simultaneously.  This would 
appear to me to breed much inconsistency from tuning to tuning, let alone 
from tuner to tuner.  That leads me to ask a question...

I wonder (and I ask this question sincerely, from a point of ignorance) how 
can we be so sure that the HT we tune today is similar to what was used in 
Beethoven's day, since the methods we use to recreate those HTs are so 
radically different from the methods used at the time?  

Tom Sivak