what's with the new temperaments?(x post)

[A440A@aol.com]

 Richard  writes:

<< The
point is that you have demonstrated evidently that a significant degree of 
your
customers, in your estimation prefer non ET tunings... while at the same time
telling us how little these same folks are able to discern about temperaments 
in
general. This just tells me theres a lot of interesting questions here that 
need
to be asked. It certainly doesnt tell me much more.<< 

   That significant degree of my customers prefer non-et is not my 
estimation, it is demonstrated for real by them and their wallets.  Also,  I 
haven't said that these "same folks"  can't discern the difference in 
temperaments, they can because they have become educated.  The ones mentioned 
earlier, like Ax, haven't been.  The head of the dept. does seem to have some 
deep seated resistance, but that is balanced by the fact that 7 out of 8 
other piano instructors, as well as two out of three voice teachers, have 
come to prefer the Moore and Co, and Broadwood tunings to ET.  These folks 
certainly can tell the difference between a Broadwood,(which I do consider a 
WT) and a Young.   They all have reacted negatively to a carefully tuned ET 
after become sensitized to the WT sound. 
 >>Tell you what... you do a formal survey....take all precautions neccessary 
to
assure as much objectivity as is possible, and eliminate whatever influence 
your
own views preferences might have on your subjects... and then publish the 
stuff.  << 

   I am surveying customers taste everyday, and they are voting with their 
money.  Rather than publishing  info, I am producing recordings.  I think 
that is the way to cause the most change.  

 >> I am pretty much on this wagon myself..... its just that
my results so far simply do not bear out your own. I have had a few 
exceptions...
like the Broadwoods best # 5 quasi ET.... but then that didnt even qualifie 
as a
Well temperament.<< 

   How does it not?  I am defining a Well-Temperament as one that follows 
Werckmeister's order of balance, with no wolf.  Having a 10 cent spread 
between your widest and narrowest thirds is a pretty long way from 
"quasi-Et", imho.  
 
Ed Foote RPT 
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html