Re: Tunings and Cognition (653 #11) - Added note

The story behind the unsatifying flatness at a point in
"Flow Gently, Sweet Afton" may itself have something to
tell about perceptions of tuning variations or errors.
I had recently gotten my piano tuned to 1/4 comma mean tone
temperament and was playing a recording of that piece over
the phone for an older friend who had been a composer
of musicals in the '40s and '50s. He had an acute ear.
After I'd played the piece for him, he sang that part of
the melody which had the slightly flattened high note,
finding it unsatisfactorily flat. Before he pointed that
out to me, I hadn't been conscious of that place in the
piece sounding particularly out of tune. Of course there
were temperings in the music, but I thought (and still do)
that the piece in MT compared very favorably with the
EQT version. Once he pointed it out to me, however, I
found it impossible not to be aware of that place in the
music whenever I heard it again, and I would always
notice the slightly unsatisfactory flatness of that
high note. Why did he have to point that out to me!?

Dave Hill La Mesa, CA