Non-ETs

[Don Gilmore]

From: "Phillip Ford" <fordpiano@earthlink.net>

> That's rather sweeping.  Weren't you the one cautioning someone else about
> 'declaiming like this'? There is a growing community of instrument makers
> and restorers, performers, orchestras, and patrons that consider these
> things anything but trivial.  Some of them would say that performing a
> Mozart concerto on a Steinway D is a joke, an offence, or heresy.  A
Mozart
> concerto played by Seth Carlin on a Walter fortepiano with the
Philharmonia
> Baroque in Herbst Theater is a completely different thing than the same
> concerto played on a Steinway D by Andre Watts with the New York
> Philharmonic at Lincoln Center.  The differences made by instruments,
> performers, orchestral size, and venue are so large as to render any
> differences in choice of temperament incidental or trivial, in my view.

I agree with this, especially when you consider the vibrato and
pitch-bending that are going on with each musician.

Another factor I often see is that people don't always even know what they
like or why, especially if the nuances are small.  This may sound absurd,
but let me give you a loosely analogous example.

Years ago I designed an automatic machine (that's what I do for a living)
that heat-seals peel-off plastic membranes onto tubs of yogurt.  The
original design included a rheostat knob that adjusted the web tension of
the membrane material.  It should have been a "set it and forget it"
adjustment.  Shortly after the machine was installed, we started getting
complaints that it wasn't functioning properly.  Every time we went to
troubleshoot the problem, we found that the operator had fiddled with the
knob.  When we returned the setting to the original factory setting, the
machine ran fine.

Finally, I got tired of service calls, removed the knob and set the web
tension permanently.  Months later they still complained that they needed
the knob for fine adjustments for the machine to operate at its "optimal
efficiency".  We knew that this was nonsense, but they insisted.  So I
reinstalled the knob...however, I didn't connect it to anything.  It was a
placebo.  Now when the operator would see something slight and intangible
about the operation that he disliked he would turn the knob a little and a
big smile would come over his face and a content, "ah, that's sweet"
countenance would follow as he believed the machine was now "back in
adjustment".  This "solved" the problem completely and we never received
another complaint.

I beleive exotic orchestral temperaments are much like this.  If you believe
that the new temperament should sound better, to you it does, regardless of
the facts.

Don A. Gilmore
Mechanical Engineer
Kansas City