Repost, Temperament comparisons

Greetings, the meantone or even. It had a >rather layered, clean sound to it.

This is a very common reaction. The ear becomes inured to the constant dissonance of equal temperament. However, with nothing to compare, that sound becomes accepted as a default sound and the ear just stops listening to the finer nuance of tonal quality. This is at the heart of the temperament revival, today. Once the listener's sense of tonality has awakened, equal temperament loses much of its attraction. Having everything out of tune tends to dull the senses.

That depends on how educated the tuner is. The major resistance to leaving equal temperament seems to come from the tuning profession, since it requires more judgement and musical understanding. As a group, we tend to stick with the status quo. If you want to receive the maximum musical impact of the composers that worked in the well-tempered era,(1700-1850), you will certainly need a well-tempered piano to play. (It may be of some interest that jazz musicians such as Keith Jarrett have embraced the well-temperaments, as well as more than a few of the country artists here in Nashville). If your tuner becomes annoyed, it will be because he/she has limitations. I think you should then ask around to find one that knows more than one way to tune a piano. There is a growing community of technicians that have seen the light, and I can usually find one in most areas. They are welcome to email me if they would like a suggestion for which temperament to try, though if you ask for a mild 'Victorian' style of well-temperament, you will be able to play any music and stil enjoy the benefits of key color for Bach through Chopin! Regards,

Ed Foote RPT http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html Well-tempered CD's at Gasparo.com. GSCD #332, 'Beethoven In the Temperaments' GSCD #344 . 'Six Degrees of Tonality' Caution, these CD's contain pure intervals and extensive liner notes!

I've thought a good bit about the differences I heard in the three performances today and decided I will definitely have the second best of four pianos tuned to well-temperment. It will be interesting for comparison purposes. If I do in fact grow more satisfied with it over time and many pieces, I may have the 9-footer tuned to it later. It has an exquisite tone as is now, so I'm not willing to experiment with it until I've thoroughly experimented with the the difference on the other.

On listening only once to each piece all the way through, my perception was that there was little difference. But upon listening to several of the same 15-20 second parts of each on, one after the other, several times, it became clear to me that there was s very significant difference. My musical tastes run mostly through 19th century material, so the well-temperament may be just what I want. But I do believe contemporary composition could benefit from the clarity and seemingly layered texture I heard. It was like three-dimensional versus two-dimensional.

I visited web sites discussing temperaments and studied the numbers on the tables. Quite interesting. Which standard for well-temperament was used for the Chopin? It was lovely.