On Apr 23, 2010, at 6:25 AM, Dennis Johnson wrote: > We have already discussed previously that tuning with a personal > interpretation is probably the most "authentic" method. I'm not sure I agree with that statement. This assumes the tuner is actually and consciously making decisions in accordance with "taste" rather than with "method." I would suggest that this is a late 20th century phenomenon, and that for most of piano tuning history - shall we say from 1840 to 1980? - the majority of tuners tried to achieve the best equal temperament tuning they knew how, in accordance with the rules and procedures they had learned. That is certainly what the historical sources I have read lead me to believe. Before 1840 (and before piano) is only different in that other patterns were included besides ET. I find it impossible to imagine a 1/4 comma mean tone with a "personal interpretation," for example. Nor a Vallotti. Some methods were less precise, as in French Ordinaire or Werckmeister's instructions of 1698, but hardly a matter of "personal interpretation." Instead, the decisions made would be to make the diatonic thirds more or less just, with the result that the chromatic ones would move in the opposite direction, more a practical decision than an artistic statement. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico fssturm at unm.edu
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