[CAUT] Harpsichord transposing keyboard/ WT

[Jim Busby]

Thanks Dave. You're right, they'll be tuned daily for this anyway.

Oops. 415, not 425. Key misfire!

Jim



-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of David Doremus
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2008 7:17 PM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Harpsichord transposing keyboard/ WT

Jim Busby wrote:
>
>
> If you tune a WT, which has a certain characteristic for each key,
> then someone wants to shift the keyboard to play at A415, should you
> retune it to maintain the key characteristics? IOW If the key of C as
> a tonality is fairly clean but C# has a lot more movement, by shifting
> the keyboard to A425 I've essentially changed the essence of the
> perceived key qualities. Should I retune?
>
> I'm using Werkmeister III and one day the keyboard will be in A440
> then the next A415, then back. Or... should I not worry about it?
>
Jim, I'd retune for sure. Werkmeister is reasonably crunchy, unless you
really want the sharp keys sweet sounding. Besides, how long does it
take to tune a harpsichord? No wear and tear on the wrist, no test blows
and no ear strain. It's a good idea to tune them daily anyway, even if
just out of habit. BTW, who's asking for 425?





--Dave

  Tulane University

  New Orleans

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  J'y suis, j'y reste.
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