This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment David: =20 Don't get me wrong, I still personally prefer ET. 60+ years of listening to ET, feeling satisfied - even smug - when I attain a wonderful ET, feeling badly and desperately trying to correct anything other than ET, will do that to you. My personal piano is - and always has been tuned in ET. I just think that there are reasons some use other temperaments and if they want them, I want to be the guy who can deliver them. The choir here was working on some Handel last semester so I tuned a piano to A-415 in a Young temperament (my favorite of the WTs) for them. Our harpsichordist always wants some flavor of WT. =20 =20 As to why composers chose specific keys....there are lots of reasons. If you are writing for a soprano you have to choose a key that will keep the song in their range. The feel of the keys under your fingers for pianists and other instruments makes a difference. There's no sense in writing something if it's technically impossible to play. I can't help but feel that when MT or WTs were widely used that the key color also played a roll in the choice of keys. =20 =20 We are a tradition bound field. It took a long time for ET to be accepted. Now that ET is standard it's taking a long time to open people up to other temperaments. =20 =20 The artists who still perform and record in ET in spite of their diligence in performance practice might just prefer it like me. Non-ET just sounds "wrong" in a certain sense. Intellectually I know it's not wrong, but so far emotionally it sounds wrong. For us it's probably the amount of time and effort that went into perfecting our ET that we don't want to throw that effort away. =20 =20 dp =20 David M. Porritt dporritt@smu.edu ________________________________ From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of David Love Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2006 7:49 AM To: 'An open list for piano technicians' Subject: RE: (careful, it is about temperaments) =20 One other comment. The problem with these types of explanations is that they ignore the data. In reaching a conclusion you first have to look at the data and what that tells you. After that you look at factors which might mitigate against your conclusion. The data suggest that people who are presumed savvy about issues such as temperament are not choosing them. The factors that mitigate against that conclusion are such as those mentioned below but even so, it represents only one tuners attitude on the subject and there's nothing to suggest that artists are asking for HT's and not getting them. When you stick to your conclusion (really your opening premise) in spite of the data then it suggests a bias. You're really starting with a conclusion and then looking for reasons to support it rather than collecting the data and reaching a conclusion based on what you find. =20 =20 David Love davidlovepianos@comcast.net=20 -----Original Message----- From: Porritt, David [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of Porritt, David Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 2:26 PM To: An open list for piano technicians Subject: RE: (careful, it is about temperaments) =20 Or they thought that when they took their show on the road they couldn't get the temperament of their choice executed by the technicians in the field. From my observations that's probably true. I listened to Franz Mohr tell a class that if an artist asks for a non-ET temperament to just tune ET and don't go there. Now that was a few years ago but his view of the subject indicated that this idea was probably not subject to change. =20 dp =20 __________________________ David M. Porritt, RPT Meadows School of the Arts Southern Methodist University Dallas, TX 75275 dporritt@smu.edu =20 ________________________________ From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org on behalf of David Love Sent: Wed 1/11/2006 2:49 PM To: 'An open list for piano technicians' Subject: RE: (careful, it is about temperaments) One thing to consider in all this (and I've probably exhausted my thoughts) is what the major pianist/scholars are doing in this respect. Pianists like Brendl, Schnabel, Perahia, and most of not virtually all others who pour over original source material, biographies, writings, documents in order to glean that small little detail that adds to their commitment to a more authentic interpretation of the music as conceived by the composer. Of all these people it seems (and I say this with the caveat that I have not actually done the research) that most if not all of them, when choosing to record/perform, opt for ET. While there may be a few who, to their credit, are exploring these pieces in the temperaments of the times, they are a stark minority. To suggest that the leading interpreters of classical music of the last century take such pains for authenticity while rejecting the, we assume, prevailing tuning style of the times forces you to the conclusion that they either consciously chose to reject it because it wasn't in their view relevant to the music and authentic interpretation, or that they are/were ignorant, biased or, as Bremmer suggests, did it for some strange business reason. Considering the extent to which they research these issues and their apparent commitment to the original intent of the composers leads me to the conclusion that the tuning style was rejected consciously and that it was not relevant, in their view, to an authentic and musical interpretation. Who am I to argue? If there is real evidence to the contrary, I'm open to hearing it. =20 David Love davidlovepianos@comcast.net -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of Ric Brekne Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 10:48 AM To: pianotech Subject: (careful, it is about temperaments) As to the matter of conclusive.... we of course agree. I dont anyone can claim conclusive proof one way or the other either... not by a long shot. That said, I /believe/ that composers were affected by the sounds around them... perfect pitch aware or not. I try to imagine my self in that same enviroment... could I not be influenced ? Could it not be a significant part of why I choose any particular key ? Well... we will never know perhaps... I'm not sure it really matters much. Certainly much in that world is there to be explored... if not re-explored. Cheers RicB While I think the exploration of WT has it's own interest in terms of what the composers of that day may have been hearing when they actually played their works on the piano or related instrument, I think it is far from conclusive that those who often conceived of and composed things away from the instrument, with a keen sense of absolute pitch and the unique characteristics of each key apart from the piano, with orchestration ever in their minds would have been driven by tuning style that was evolving even during their own lifetimes. =20 _______________________________________________ Pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives _______________________________________________ Pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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