Re: Stylistic preferences and tolerance for 12-tet

Hello, there, and I'd like to express another view on the following
statement by perlich@acadian-asset.com, which I suspect may illustrate
the role of a performer's or listener's range of styles in influencing
tuning preferences:

> The quality of JI or meantone thirds is really quite different from
> that of 12-tET, and to a musician the former is hard to put up with
> at first, until a good exposure period, after which a return to
> 12-tET is _really_ hard to put up with.

Please let me emphasize that I prefer meantone for Renaissance music
and Pythagorean for Gothic music, with a dividing line falling
somewhere around 1450. In practice, the meantone is 1/4-comma,
although I've considered trying 2/7-comma (Zarlino's tuning) also.

Typically I divide my synthesizer sessions (with a Yahama TX-802 and
two four-octave MIDI controllers which can be "part-tuned" to give
virtual split keys) into a Pythagorean/medieval part and a
Renaissance/meantone part.

From my perspective, a 12-tet major third (400 cents) is located
between the meantone (5:4, 386 cents) and Pythagorean (81:64, 408
cents) values. Thus it's just another possibility. All things being
equal, it's a bit subdued for medieval (compared to 3-limit JI) and a
bit active for Renaissance (compared to 5-limit JI or meantone), but
acceptable to me for both in a pinch.

Then, again, my taste may be unusual, since I've loved Gothic music
for over 30 years, and at least one person here with a wide range of
tuning interests has spoken of how strange it can sound to people with
a strong triadic orientation.

However, that possible qualification duly noted, I must say that
recently I played some Renaissance-style counterpoint on a 12-tet
piano, and I found the sound interestingly "different" but not
unpleasant, maybe like a photograph with a different touch of shading,
but not a displeasing one.

A possible hypothesis: might 12-tet be more acceptable for those
accustomed to both Pythagorean and meantone tunings, for whom it might
be a kind of "intermediate shade," as opposed to those oriented to
tertian music in 5-limit or meantone, but not quintal/quartal music in
Pythagorean?

Most respectfully,

Margo Schulter
mschulter@value.net