Robin, actually, I skimmed over the matter of pure or equal temperament because I didn't want to add another element to a subject that some people seem to find unduly complicated already. I've had discussions with a lot of folk musicians who've had little or no formal musical training (sometimes shunning any knowledge of music theory for fear it will pollute their purity as folk musicians) who have some peculiar ideas about what equal temperament actually is. I've actually had it used as a verbal club against anything I try to say about music: for example, "because you've studied music theory, you're limited to just playing certain notes, whereas I'm free to play any note I want," and other such twaddle. Since the original question had to do with someone refusing to tune with other people at a session, I was plumping for the acceptance of a standard of pitch accepted internationally and which most instrument makers have in mind when they build an instrument, be it fixed pitch like a clarinet or an instrument that has to be kept in tuned, like a guitar. My idea was to save everybody a lot of time and aggravation by accepting and tuning to that standard, not clinging to some misconception about what "traditional" musicians do or don't do.

Just for the record, three years at the University of Washington School of Music, two years at the Cornish School of the Arts, and private theory lessons with Mildred Hunt Harris, plus lots of private lessons in voice and classic guitar. I'm always open to learn more.

It's my understanding that Vivaldi, Mozart, et al often did maintain that different keys had different emotional qualities, and it may very well be because they were using just tuning and it struck them that way. I have met musicians, both classical and jazz, who insist that each key has it's own quality: "D is bright and sunny," or "G, even though major, is dark and somber," and on around the circle of fifths, ascribing qualities like this to each key, major and minor. And this, even when dealing with instruments tuned in equal temperament. I tend to think that this may be a bit of "one-upmanship." To me, different keys on the guitar do seem to have different qualities of sonority, but not any particular difference in emotional quality. But this is because of the different voicings of first position chords in each key. Other than the way different keys sound on specific instruments, I can't hear such qualities inherent in each key regardless of instrument. If it is there it's too subtle for me.

Don Firth