Jim, Thanks for your response. I agree about four tunings being the baseline, and am probably charging about the same per tuning as you do. James Tenney was on our faculty. He was, among many, many other things, a great expert on tuning systems. I was honored to have had the opportunity to address his tuning class concerning practical aspects of composing for alternative tunings. He is missed by many. Glad you liked the "Temperament Workstation" concept. Does anybody out there know if there is something like this out there already? If there is, that could save use some time and trouble. Thanks, Alan Eder -----Original Message----- From: Jim Busby <jim_busby at byu.edu> To: caut at ptg.org <caut at ptg.org> Sent: Mon, 2 Feb 2009 5:12 pm Subject: Re: [CAUT] HIstorical temperaments and compensation Hi Alan, I like your creativity with the controller idea. Good solution to “what’s this gonna sound like?” We usually don’t charge School of Music people for most things because they don’t really ask for too much “unusual” stuff, maybe two or three times a year. However, when we do have special things that we have to charge for here’s how we do it; 4 tunings – one to bring it up to pitch or establish the temperament and one to fine tune it for the concert. Then one tuning to bring it back down, and one fine tuning. James Tenney, who passed away recently, had a remarkable tuning we put on a D. It was down to -49 cents on one note and +5 on the sharpest note, etc. It all made sense once you heard the composition, which was based on the F overtone series. Two tunings were needed to establish it, Two to restore and stabilize ET/A440. Same with A443 for the Int. Double Reed Society. 2 up, 2 to put it back. I think 4 would be minimum needed for anything more than a very mild WT or HT on a concert instrument. We have a fee for non S of M (While I won’t give out our charge for a tuning let’s just say that it is lower than a private tuning would be by about 30%). That X 4 is what we charge. Does that help? Regards, Jim Busby BYU From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of reggaepass at aol.com Sent: Monday, February 02, 2009 3:08 PM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: [CAUT] HIstorical temperaments and compensation List, This past summer I had a long meeting with my dean. We covered everything from what I like and don't like about working here (all matters large and small) to additional funding for the piano shop and the prospects for enhanced compensation for yours truly. He responded well to many of my suggestions along these lines. One was that the piano shop start being reimbursed for any unusual tunings. Until now, this has meant alternative, modern tunings (anywhere on the spectrum from simply tuning one piano down 50 cents for quarter tone music to realizing original tuning systems). This service had been freely provided as an indulgence to the students and faculty, creating more of a burden for me without any extra compensation--the bad scenario articulated by Jeff Tanner. My dean has since agreed to compensation for the piano shop in exchange for any unusual tuning work. Here is how we have structured the procedure: Someone requests a non-ET/440 tuning; I make a binding estimate for how much time it should take; we multiply that times a wholesale private rate (i. e., less than I would charge someone privately, but more than what my salaried rate at the school comes out to per hour); they determine if/how it will be paid for, and we go from there. It turns out that the composition department, for example, has funds for "programming" which can be used for paying for alternate tunings. This has been a positive development in that i t is a source of income for the shop while also serving as a, er, "consciousness raiser" for those who dabble in alternate tunings as part of their work. I am considering trying to include historical tunings under this same umbrella. I have yet to put one on a piano here (harpsichords only, so far). The current plan is this: Set up a work station that would enable pianists to play their pieces on an 88 note weighted keyboard controller hooked up to a computer that can provide piano samples in any number of historical tunings. Ideally, the pianist would be able to change from one tuning system to another at the push of a button. In addition to the educational value such an opportunity would potentially have in and of itself, it could serve as the "menu" for ordering up a particular tuning (compensation provided!) for performance on an actual piano. Am I trying to reinvent the wheel here, or does someone already have something like this up and running? Cheers, Alan Eder You can't always choose whom you love, but you can choose how to find them. Start with AOL Personals. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut_ptg.org/attachments/20090202/b7133eae/attachment.html>
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