Non-ETs; more organic than ET?

[Ron Koval]

Hey Don, you managed to push a bunch of "hot" buttons, so let me push right 
back.

Ignorance is bliss.....

I got off the phone with Alan Fox, from Fox bassoons, a few months back 
after this "instruments in ET only" topic came up on the alternate tuning 
list.  I'm a classicly trained bassoonist, and an instrument tech, so I 
thought a call to him would clear up some mis-information.  Seems they 
design the scale much more towards a Just scale of undefined type.....  How 
is this possible?  Well, what pianists and techs sometimes forget is that 
other instruments are NOT fixed-pitch instruments.  The micro-adjusting of 
pitch is done "on the fly" to get the tonality you want.  Five to ten cents 
of adjustment is a piece of cake.  About the only instrument designed to be 
in ET is a fretted instrument.  Hmmmm, that leaves out the piano, doesn't 
it?

So, why have you had such a problem with a historical temperament?  Let me 
guess, it was pretty heavy-duty, maybe even a mean-tone of some kind.  
That's the other common source of ignorance about tuning.  There is a whole 
world of mild tunings that support the key- centered approach to music. 
(This includes Jazz, by the way)  The farthest away from ET for any single 
note will usually be in the 5 cent range, so it doesn't provide any problems 
with instrumentalists or vocalists.

Don,  a bunch of people have done a lot of reading and experimenting on this 
subject around here.  Oh, in case you missed it, Bach's Well Tempered 
Clavier wasn't written for ET either.

Ron Koval
Chicagoland


<snip>
I suppose, if your goal is to sound "just as crappy as Mozart did", you can
have your piano tuned like that and give a nice little solo concert.  You
can even dress in period attire.  While your at it, why not turn off the
central heating and light the stage with coal oil lamps.

This is fine if you're just doing it for novelty, playing for non-musicians,
or just fiddling around.  But if you want to seriously play, compose, or jam
in the real, modern world, you'd better use ET.  Fortunately, virtually all
professionals do.

Don
<end>

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