The bland tonality of Equal Temperament is a major departure from the Well (unequal) temperaments that dominated European music in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, where the varying size of major and minor thirds caused keys to sound different from one another. Keys with few sharps or flats sound more consonant, whereas keys with more accidentals sound more ’spicy’. Each tonality of the circle of 5ths exhibits a different character. Composers would have chosen specific keys in order to exploit specific tonalities. The loss of key tonality also means a loss of what is arguably an important musical dimension — the change of tonality, character or ‘feeling’ when the music modulates between keys.
The three publications below sparked my search for a temperament that restored key tonality:
- Enid Katahn. Six Degree of Tonality. Cover notes from a CD (PDF)
- Enid Katahn. Beethoven in the Temperaments. Cover notes from a CD (PDF)
- David Løberg Code. The Piano’s Ivory Cage (PDF)
I eventually settled on the Equal-Beating Victorian Temperament (EBVT), devised by the piano technician Bill Bremmer in 1992. EBVT is a mild Well-temperament that very closely approximates ET, pitch for pitch. Some notes are, in fact the very same and others differ only very slightly. A piano tuned in EBVT will have 24 distinctly different sounding tonalities for each of the 24 Major and minor keys. A piano tuned with EBVT will exhibit a distinctly different character but not so different as to sound strange or unusual. Many people will think that it somehow sounds more musical, while others will not be able to distinguish the difference. EBVT is compatible with all types of music, and also with fixed-pitch instruments tuned in ET.
Playing and listening to music is ultimately a matter of taste. The choice of temperament is therefore a personal one. We will accomodate whatever the pianist prefers. While EBVT is a good universal temperament to use, there are other temperaments that advanced pianists with specific repertoire may wish to explore. We would be happy to do that with you.