[CAUT] using as ETD

[Dr. Henry Nicolaides]

So far so good!  I tuned our Baldwin 9ft studio piano to Bremmer's EBVT III just prior to class and then sat in on the studio.  Four students played Bach, Schumann, and Scriabin.  They played on this piano for weeks/months tuned to ET.  At the end of studio I asked them how they felt the piano "sounded".  Their response was "you just tuned it" and one remarked "it sounds as if the piano has opened up".  The rest of the class, those that did not play agreed that the piano sounded "better".  I think we have an opportunity to establish as well as change perceptions.  

Henry Nicolaides
Southern Illinois University

To: caut at ptg.org
Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2010 09:11:53 -0400
From: a440a at aol.com
Subject: Re: [CAUT] using as ETD








 ( I think) Susan asks: 






always considered customers clueless 



on the subject of temperaments, unable to hear the differences.



Do you just have smarter customers than I do?







     I don't think it is a question of intelligence, but the completely different parameter of aesthetic sensitivity.  Temperament sensitivity is a learned awareness, and the work required is to drop expectations, get in the moment, and feel the difference between harmony of varying levels of consonance in UET.  A major change is one of greater overall consonance in music, which removes some inherent harshness caused by ET.  The other major effect is the removal of the constant 14 cent beating, everywhere, that triads in ET create.  


    Both of these effects can register subliminally on the listener, but with a bit of educated awareness, pianists can often detect an intention of the composer that would have been lost in ET, (ie, "why does this modulation take the particular route that it does?")


     I have educated a lot of my customers and they often remark not only how much more meaning they find in playing their music, but also,  how sterile and boring ET pianos "out there" feel to them after they have become accustomed to their home pianos in WT.  ET has a very particular sound when compared to all other tunings, perhaps more distinctive than any of the WT's. 


         I do remember really "hearing" ET for the first time. I had been tuning for 16 years, aurally, when I spent a weekend with "Tuning".  Spent three days with a Young and Kirnberger III in the house, had some jazzers over, a classical friend, etc.  Played boogie on them myself.  Then, Monday a.m., I walked into a recording studio, put in the strip, and tuned the piano in ET. Sat back and played it and was shocked at what it felt like.   It was an eye-opener to hear it from a totally new perspective.  


   I believe that our life experience is totally dependent on our perception of the events in it,  and I believe our perception is totally dependent on our perspective.  I also believe our perspective is the ONLY thing we can change. If I want grow, I have to change, so I will have to change my perspective. That requires faith sufficient to overcome some fears of the unknown. So far, so good! 


Regards, 


      






Ed Foote RPT


http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html

 




 

 		 	   		  
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