Hi Folks. This past few weeks I've had the most interesting experience in conexion with a recording session at Edvard Grieg's home. I'm not quite sure what to make of it really... so I will put it forward to you all for comment / edification. The old B at his house has been tuned at 442 for the last 25 years or so... and has a very pronounced killer octave syndrom... and in general is sounds <<old>>. Since it is Grieg's piano everyone of course accepts it for what it is and finds positives to say about it. Tuning it to 436 has changed the character of the instrument dramatically... and not just because of the slower tempo of all beating intervals. The killer octave has all but dissapeared, the grumsy bass got a lot cleaner and the general eveness and roundness of tone improved tremendously. The regular pianists that play on this thing are split down the middle as to whether the change is positive or not. One says the piano hasnt sounded so good in 20 years or so. Another on the far side of the discussion here says the piano sounds just sour and false... and oddly enough... oldish. What is curious about all this is that those who liked the piano at 442 better all site a common reason... it had more brilliance in the mid to high treble. The other reason they site is that the piano had more <<character>> (to be read as "uniqueness" I suppose) . Two things come to mind as an explanation... because as a piano in its own right it undoubtedly sounds overall far superior now then before if usual norms are laid to ground as criteria for judgment. The first is that perhaps there are many pianists and appreciators of piano music that actually like the kind of sound picture the killer octave syndrom creates. If one looks at music and compares this to demands made by some for very long sustain in the treble... one finds really that most pianos of today have quite a bit more sustain in the treble area then is strictly demanded. One can extrapolate that from at least 1850 backwards a percussive and short sustain top was part of the tonal pallet of most composers... which takes one off in a lot of directions. But most significantly kind of shoot gigantic canyons in criticisms of pianos that develop this kind of tonal picture. The failure so far of innovative instruments with very very long sustain times in this region may be partly explained then that the majority of the ears out there simply dont want that kind of sound. Speculation all of this to be sure. The other explanation perhaps is a bit more predictable. This is Griegs piano.... it is SUPPOSED to sound old... <<historic>>. If it actually sounds wonderful in a modern sense of the word... then it looses its charm and become anonymous There is a whole bunch more thats interesting tho... One thing that has been revealed to me is that people with very high degrees of pitch sensitivity are in effect handicapped with respect to being able to appreciate any real variety of tonal color. This goes way beyond HT / ET discussions... one simply can not accept any different basic key coloring then what ones memorized pitch sensitivity allows for. Highly sensitive European 442 ears would have trouble accepting 440... and reverse I suppose. That in itself opens a huge area for discussion. Tough to get folks to step out of their molds and approach the subject matter from an objective dispassionate angle for discussion... but fascinating non the less Cheers RicB
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