Hi Jim: Thanks for all the efforts (in our behalf) on the tune-off contest results for benefit of all (me!) unable to attend in Providence. Question: I believe you know how I tune or try to, at least - does this mean that I must right here and now abort my equal temperament tunings in favor of Bill's H.T. temperaments? (I haven't found very many out there that can tell the diff in poor and good E.T.s either, let alone H.T. vs E.T. Please post privately - I do not want to get involved in any running battles... and Thanx in Advance! Clancy S. P.S. I am tuning four concerts at C.A.C.C. (Casa Grande) again this year - Arizona Mormon Choir, Diamonds (?), Wayland Pickard "He is like Victor Borge (tuned for him twice)- Mark Russell - and Liberace all rolled into one", and Guy Lombardo a second time. Jim, I absolutely did NOT like Lombardo when a youth - period! But I guess he was too busy selling records by pushing the pop tunes of the day on the air. The man had a FANTASTIC library of arrangements as good as the 'Count', Woody Herman, or the 'Duke'. And Jim Peresol, pianist-conductor of today's band plays them, too. Lombardo didn't! Incidentally Peresol (spelling?) takes the place of TWO pianists Guy used as you know. He gets just about everything done himself that the two pianists of yore did with the Lombardo band. Plus now vocals are not done by (ugh!) Carmen and the lead Alto is NOT a Lombardo with the ultra-sweet tremolo vibrato. The band is (or was last year) just about as good or perhaps even superior to the recording bands of the Lombardo years. Plus Jim P. made a side remark last time - "great piano". It almost made the thirty odd years of personal sacrifice worth it! Jim Coleman, Sr. wrote: > > Hi Del: > > I'll try to answer your question below. > > On Thu, 16 Jul 1998, Delwin D Fandrich wrote: > > > Jim, > > > > I'm curious. I was not able to attend the Sunday tune-off, but I would like your > > impressions -- > > > > I understand that Bill Bremmer's EBVW temperment won the event using the Walter > > grand -- about which I am admittedly prejudiced. I have two questions: > > > > 1) In your view, how much were the tuning results influenced by the differences > > in the stringing scales used in the two pianos? The stringing scale in the Walter > > is quite smooth, both in power and in inharmonicity. Unless the Steinway B was > > rescaled, the stringing scale in the Steinway B would have been, well, a Steinway B > > scale. > > First I must confess, in a previous post I mentioned that Virgil's piano was > a Steinway B. THAT WAS WRONG. It was a Yamaha S4 which is the successor to > the S 400 (I think). > > The Walter Grand is a very fine piano as you know since you designed it. The > balance is very good (so is the Yamaha S4). Bill's tuning took advantage of > the blending of the octaves so that there was good matching of triple and > maybe even quadruple octaves (something which Virgil also attempts to do). > I overheard Bill say to Dr. Sanderson that the top C8 was 77 cents > sharp. The piano just sounded beautifully in tune while listening to music. > Obviously, when playing test intervals, there was much deviation from equal > temperament, but not as much as in some of the historical temperaments. for > example, the Paul Bailey unique temperament was more extreme. Karen Hudson- > Brown who played all of the comparison pieces commented about the Paul > Bailey temperament: "this Paul Bailey temperament feeds my soul." This > was in contrast to all of the other tunings. When the contest was > between the Bremmer tuning and the Bailey tuning, many of us were not quite > ready for the greater contrasts of the Bailey. The Bremmer tuning was much > milder. but as you can see above, the real aficionado, Karen, preferred the > Bailey. The piano which had the Bailey tuning was a little less manageable. > It might have made it harder for Karen to tune it in the Bailey temperament. > > When the comparison was between Virgil's ET and Bill's EBV Well > temperament, the ET was a little bland, but clean. I believe that the lower > inharmonicity of the Yamaha did not permit Virgil to do his best stretch. > Virgil is more used to tuning Steinways. > Bill mentioned that higher inharmonicity pianos lend themselves better to > stretching out the semi-wolf 5ths in the higher treble. If I'm not mistaken, > I don't believe I have seen an adequate explanation from Bill about just how > he does that maximum blending of the octaves. His treble was superb. > > > > > 2) In your view, how much was the voting influenced (if at all) by the > > differences in the sound and performance between the two pianos? I did not hear the > > two pianos side by side, but, if the Steinway B was typical of its type, the Walter > > should have been the "smoother" and "cleaner" sounding of the two pianos. > > Since it was NOT a Steinway that Virgil tuned, it is hard to answer this > question. The Yamaha was rather typical however, and a very good piano. Well > scaled. I certainly could not downgrade the Yamaha. They are always so good > at having great duration in the killer octaves. Some of the musical > selections were equal in beauty. The ones which utilized the high treble > showed Bill's tuning to be superior. The voting was not even a close tie. > > In the first Heat race, it was between ET and a Handel Well and the Kellner > Well temperaments. Virgil's won quite handily in the voting, but the > Handel won in my personal scoring. In the second Heat race, > Bill's EBV won over the Bailey modified Meantone by only one point in my > method of scoring. However the voting preference showed a little more > difference. The Bailey may have fared much better except for the fact that > Karen was playing on a 7/8 keyboard on that piano. This may have subtracted > a little from her usual expressive playing. > > Jim Coleman, Sr. > > PS Please understand that this is just one person's impressions. > > > > > I'm making this query private, but please feel free to make it public if you wish. > > > > Regards, > > > > Del > > > >
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