Cecil Taylor/Improvisation

Today I was listening to Cecil Taylor's "Air above Mountains
-
Buildings Within" from 1976, and an interesting question came to
mind: Would this music even be possible in a tuning other than 12
tET? Which prompted other questions such as: When we improvise on
instruments tuned to a certain tuning, how does the tuning affect the
improvisational moment-to-moment choices that we make? I'm
certain
that it's way too subjective of a thing to ever be universally
quantified. I've realized long ago from analysis of my own
improvisational style on the 12 tET piano, that I have always seemed
to avoid the major 3rd. It's so obvious to me now why I made this
kind of choice – because of the interval being so grossly out of
tune
from the just 5/4. But when I'm playing an instrument that's
got a
purely tuned 5/4 major 3rd (or many other possible just major 3rds)
my fingers will happily gravitate to this interval. I have in the
past conducted a few simple tests with improvising musicians who
normally play 12 tET instruments. I have got them to set down and
improvise on a justly tuned piano, without any preparation or
explanation of the way the keyboard is tuned, so that I could observe
the spontaneous intervallic choices they would make. I just wanted
their ear to dictate what sounded correct to them with a first
exposure to a given tuning. I did not get particularly analytical
about what I saw and heard, but suffice it to say that when we
discussed their improvisation, it was obvious that the musicians
found that the new sounds under their fingers did indeed make them
make choices that they would have never made on a 12 tET tuned
instrument. Perhaps the deviations from the acoustic intervals in 12
tET are a huge part of what has influenced stylistic concepts in all
12 tET musics – such as the nervous need to modulate
"all-over-hell-
and-back". I do think it would be very revealing to take this
kind of
test to a more analytical level though, and make some midi recordings
of improvising with unique tunings without the musician knowing
what's going on with the tuning of the instrument beforehand, and
be
able to look at the overall results of the melodic/harmonic intervals
chosen. It would be great if there was some software that could
achieve this kind of analysis of a midi file, by allowing you to
input the intervals of the tuning that was used, then be able to look
inside of the moment-to-moment choices that a 12 tET improviser made
during a first exposure to the tuning – and be able to quantify
the
choices. Two things it might reveal are the deficits of 12 tET and
the strengths of the tuning used – providing intuitive
information
based on improvisation. Perhaps a "12 Tetter" would gravitate
to
things that are better than what they are used to. Has anyone ever
tried something similar to this? Any thoughts?

Regards,

Jacky