At 06:37 11/11/2006, you wrote: >Hi all from Oz, > >I'm tuning 3 fortepianos for the Mozart triple piano concerto series >this week and next, here in Sydney, for the leading baroque >orchestra. Have just staggered home from Sat night after Friday >night's first concert. Tuning stability was not good - and I am >looking for any help from fellow CAUTs on techniques to nail tunings >that will last more than one movement. I have about 2 hours >pre-concert for tuning - 40 mins each. I'm hitting hard, and the 3 >are becoming more obedient, but the arrival of 1.500 audience seems >to unsettle them! Unison and octave drift. Any advice from >fortepiano gurus out there? > >Thanks, >Geoff Pollard >Sydney Conservatorium of Music >University of Sydney Geoff, Trying to get Overs Piano type tuning stability on a harpsichord or fortepiano is like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall. The only way to get the best stability is to have the beasties on-stage in the hall as long as possible, lights on, unmoved, and somehow keep temp/humidity constant during the performance. It sounds like _you're_ doing most everything right (as I would expect ;-) except, as Marcel notes, hard blows don't necessarily add to stability. I tend to think "guitar" when tuning... a little tugging on the string may help, but more is not always better. Methinks the ambient conditions are conspiring against you. Conrad Hoffsommer Early to rise: early to bed; Makes a man healthy, and socially dead.
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