temperaments:clear as mud?

[Ron Koval]

in response to Ed's post:

ET is ET, and those that want to ascribe different "characters" to the
keys will have to explain why a piano tuned 1/2 step flat will make the key
of C sound just like the key of B. I have heard musicians recognize the
'character" of B on such a piano, even when I was playing in C!!

Because, I think even though you are "playing" in C, the beat rates tell the 
sensitive person that you are in fact "sounding" in B.  I heard you use this 
explanation in Chicago, but couldn't figure out what was wrong with it 'till 
later.

I think it is ALL about beats, even if people don't have the vocabulary or 
the training to know what they are experiencing.  Not only the beats of the 
Major 3rd in a triad, but the beats of the minor third and the 5th, and the 
octave, if added.  If you graph the beat rates between these three intervals 
in a triad, they are NOT parallel lines, so the ratios change from key to 
key.  There are enough people that can hear key color in ET, that 
something's going on here.

Ron Koval
Chicagoland

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