(careful, it is about temperaments)

[A440A@aol.com]

Greetings, 
      I wrote: 
>        Interesting, and it is my understanding that every time an ET piano
>has been compared side by side to a mild WT piano, the WT piano is 
>judged more
>in tune by a large percentage of listeners. >>

Roger replies: 
>>         I get the same results as you are are 
seeing.   Broadwood's best 1885 is well liked here. The other comment 
that I get, is the piano is easier to play.<<


      I use a lot of Broadwood tunings, but have found that several customers 
had problems with the fifths in the "near" keys, (not the slightly wider 
thirds in the more remote keys!).  For those that wanted less of this, I have 
found that Jim Coleman's #11 does a fine job of providing harmonic variety.  
      David L. mentions that the WT sounds better until you get into the key 
of Gb.  Hmm,  it is rather rare to find anything in Gb, but when you do, you 
will notice that the composers of the 18-19th century seem to make use of the 
pure fifths that are found in those remote keys.  The added speed of the thirds 
is a problem for tuners, but I haven't found musicians being bothered by 
them, especially as they come to realize how much more clarity is in the music on 
a WT.  Plus, the damper pedal can be used far more, without the haze of ET 
making everything muddy with long sustains.  Anytime you can lift the dampers, 
the piano has the potential of being more resonant, since there are more strings 
singing.  Highly tempered thirds also maintain consonance farther down the 
scale than the ET thirds, which become dissonant as soon as the 5:4 partials 
fall into the critical band, (usually around C2).  
      Tuners listen differently than musicians or music lovers.  We were 
trained to tune by learning to avoid anything that would produce a wider third 
that the ET third.  This, I think, is the reason that the majority of resistance 
to WT comes from technicians, not musicans.  I have said it before, there is 
nothing musically magical about a 13.7 third.  It is simply the result of 
having 12 tones in an octave.  There are a lot of other musical resources in thirds 
both larger and smaller.   
       Since the vast bulk of music completely avoids the most highly 
tempered keys, and in classical music, those keys were used for particular effects,  
where is the benefit of compromising everything just to insure that a 18 cent 
third won't be heard?  I haven't found it, but I have found a loyal and 
growing clientele that is happy to pay top dollar for non-ET work.  They speak of 
having found new life in their old music and wouldn't dream of returning to 
strict ET unless they are going to play 20th century music exclusively.  
      So, there is money in new directions here.  I will be presenting a 
class next summer on selling the different tunings, so for those that are 
intrigued, make plans to go to the convention.  There will also be another temperament 
class presenting, (I think), instruction  for aurally tuning these things.  
This marks a fairly high level of support for non-ET tuning in the Guild, which 
is timely, since there are a LOT of tuners that have made the switch from 
mono to multi-temperament capability.   
Regards,    
 
Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html