----- Original Message ----- >Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:52:41 -0600 >From: Ron Nossaman <rnossaman at cox.net> >Subject: Re: [CAUT] professor tuning variables (David Love) (David Love) >To: caut at ptg.org >> I have no beef with you here, David, or with anyone else either, for >> that matter. To each his own. It just seemed ironic to me that someone >> who eschews ETDs and insists on tuning exclusively by ear should raise >> this a question with this particular twist... To such, I say, extensive >> us of WT's would save time and trouble... >> >> Israel Stein >Ah, then it was aimed at me. That explains it. >I don't eschew ETDs. I use a registered and paid for copy of >Tunelab in the shop on occasion. Nor do I insist on tuning >exclusively by ear. I choose to, and couldn't care less how it >rubs you in any case. The point was and is that without ETDs, >historical temperaments would be much less often used, and not >nearly as precisely defined in as great a number as is today >the case. If that's twisted, so be it. Well, Ron, to return the compliment - I really don't care how you tune pianos where. And I could make a good case for the opposite of your thesis. Temperament tuning on modern pianos has been around since the early 1960s - with people like Malcom Binns even championing it in concerts and recordings. So, without ETDs we would still be awash in horrendous tunings claiming to be "equal temperament" - and by now enough tuners might have caught on to the idea that you can get much nicer-sounding results in less time by using a Well temperament of some sort to make a significant difference in its prevalence. And from there to Meantone, on request, is not such a big step. So maybe you are right in that there might not be too many tuners offering a palette of temperaments (except that I knew a couple in Boston who were doing that in the 70's aurally - and there's one here in California) - but the use of a small number of WTs by many tuners might have spread as a time-saving shortcut to better sounding tunings. But I guess that's just speculation either way. My main point was that tuning WTs aurally is easy - much esier than ET. Given valid motivation and good information (see Fred Sturm's post) experienced tuners could learn several (and a meantone or two besides) in no time at all. >And please trim your posts. My apologies - not used to doing e-mail on a browser (which is all I have for this e-mail account here at SFSU). Israel Stein -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut_ptg.org/attachments/20090225/9a0d51e3/attachment-0001.html>
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