1907 Piano tuning book excerpt

Greetings,
Dave quotes J.C. Fischer
> We have demonstrated, that if we tune the members of the
>chord of C so as to get absolutely pure harmony, we could not use the
>chord of A on account of the flat fifth E, which did duty so perfectly
>as third in the chord of C.
>
>There is but one solution to this problem: Since we cannot tune either
> the fifth or third perfect, we must compromise, we must strike the
>happy medium. So we will proceed by a method that will leave our fifths
> flatter than perfect, but not so much as to make them at all displeasing,
> and that will leave our thirds sharper than perfect, but not intolerably
> so.

This is a common misconception today, that there is no room between the
meantone tunings and ET. There is more than one solution to the problem of
fifths and thirds, and those are the temperaments promoted between
Werckmiester and Fischer. We call them well temperaments, but at the time
they were often called Equal.
Pianists today are beginning to find that softening the exact ET with all
those 13 cent thirds in it gives a new life to the piano, and are finding
that something very beautiful occurs when a piece of classical or Romantic
era music is played on a temperaments that were in vogue at the time of
composition.
Dave's recordings are quite valuable, and they are the only ones I know
that allow a temperament comparison with one piece played in several. I will
have our second temperament CD out next fall that will use five different
tunings for six different pieces, (from Scarlatti to Grieg).
Regards,
Ed Foote