JI vs.equal temp

Sorry, I don't remember who put the post about preferring JI music
to eq music...I am somewhat amazed that people think that way. As others
have pointed out, is the music more important than the tuning? Or vice
versa? Or, does it matter? Fact is, it has been mentioned that purely
tuned intervals affect the body and nervous system in a different way
than tempered intervals, because of the way the Universe is
designed...Danielou mentions this in his book, and it makes a lot of
sense to me that this is so. Of course, and again, others have pointed
this out, if a poor composer writes a piece in JI, is it worth listening
to just because of the tuning? Not to me, it isn't. There has been much
superb music written in 12 eq, as we all know...most of us on this list
grew up listening to lots of 12 eq stuff, and it is (obviously) still
the dominant sound in our culture. For whatever reason, there is not
nearly the quantity of great JI music compared to eq music...perhaps
that will change as more folks develop composing/performing skills on JI
instruments. A tuning must be used to create profound music...otherwise,
it remains in the realm of the abstract, fun to talk about, but music is
meant to be heard and experienced.
Also, I love chord based music, including Bach, Bartok, Coltrane,
Parker, blues, country, bluegrass, flamenco, etcetc. Maybe someone will
figure out how to write complex chordal music of the level of Bartok's
Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta in JI...that would be
great..As of now, I have heard little JI music that yet remotely
compares to such masterpieces...and the 12 eq literature is chock full
of incredible music for hundreds of years; again, that would be great if
such JI masterworks appear (and I do know there are some great JI
musicians out there). At this point, I feel the level of JI music
composition/performance, is not up to the level of JI theories...and, on
this forum, there are many brilliant theorists, and I am grateful to
have learned from them. My suggestion to JI enthusiasts is to practice
and study the arts of composing and performing, which are not the same
as theorizing about scales and tunings...when the many great JI theories
result in more great JI music, that will be an important day for the art
of music in general.
One more thing...if one prefers JI music over eq music, does that
include all eq temps, or just 12eq? For example, 34 eq is much closer
(in many ways) to the harmonic series than 12 is...31, 53, and others
are also more harmonius in significant ways...it seems like an
interesting and ongoing discussion...which is what it's all about,
anyway...Hstick (PS...what about Pythagorean or spiral of 5ths based
tunings...are they in or out? How about gamelan music, which is way off
of the harmonic series? And, if one wants to listen to purely tuned
music of the highest order, there are many great Indian musicians who
routinely play in these systems)