Dear List, Skip Becker RPT who is hosting the Temperament Festival program at the Convention in Providence asked me to write up a description of the temperament I willbe presenting for the hand out book that will be provided. I have placed a copy of it below for those who may be interested, especially those who might not be able to attend. If you are not interested in the use of Historical Temperaments and do not enjoy reading anything about them, please simply delete this post. Bill Bremmer RPT Madison,Wisconsin THE EQUAL-BEATING VICTORIAN TEMPERAMENT Bill Bremmer RPT, Madison Wisconsin In my town, Madison, Wisconsin, it is commonplace to hear pianos tuned in the Historical Temperaments. This practice is due in large part to the efforts of one of the Madison Chapter members, Timothy Farley RPT. In the mid-1980's he became interested in Professor Owen Jorgensen RPT's studies and teaching of these practices. He encouraged other Chapter Members to try these temperaments and soon a strong, unwavering commitment to their use began and persists today. I am one of those converts and am proud to say that I have not tuned a single piano except those used in the RPT Tuning Exams in Equal Temperament (ET) since the late months of 1989. One of the temperaments that found favor with our group was the Rameau-Rousseau-Hall 18th Century Modified Meantone Temperament. A copy of this temperament sequence is enclosed in this hand out (apologies for the poor quality of the reproduction). It is from Professor Jorgensen's second publication, The Equal-Beating Temperaments, A Handbook for Tuning Harpsichords and Fortepianos. Although this temperament as it is documented was found to have beautiful color, there is some harshness that is deemed too severe to make it a temperament which could be used universally (for any kind of music). Some of its practitioners including myself found ways to mitigate it so that it might be more universally acceptable. I was able to come up with two versions of it which I dubbed the Contemporary Modified Meantone I & II. In late 1992, I was asked to tune the rehearsal hall piano for the Madison Opera's World Premier production of the opera, Shining Brow, the story of a period of the life of the famous architect who lived in our area, Frank Lloyd Wright. I was also honored to be a member of that cast. The music was contemporary in sound, in many keys and featured polyphony as one of its many characteristics. I knew I needed a temperament which was very close to Equal but would still retain distinct key color, a Victorian type. Professor Jorgensen's new book had several such examples but I didn't feel comfortable with any of them because there was no Equal-Beating (EB) method for them. Without the EB intervals, I felt I was "just guessing" at the precise character of each interval. Therefore, I tried a third and more radical mitigation of our favorite Modified Meantone Temperament. It was a very successful attempt. Professor Jorgensen's book, Tuning, describes in one of its sections (73) how it is perfectly permissible to alter a temperament "according to one's own personal taste" and still be considered a Historical Temperament (HT), as long as valid HT precedents are followed. This "watered-down" Modified Meantone thus not only became "Victorian- ized", but now fit the rules for a Well-Tempered (WT) Tuning as well. It was known for a while as the Shining Brow Temperament but wanting to avoid any copyright infringement, it is now referred to as simply, The Equal-Beating Victorian Temperament (EBV). It is compatible with virtually any music. A typical rendering of it places no notes in the temperament octave range more than 4 cents flat or sharp of theoretical ET. If played unison for unison with a piano or other keyboard tuned in ET at Standard Pitch, one will hear only an occasional "wave" in the unisons. It is therefore compatible also with other fixed-pitch instruments and MIDI programs which are presumed to be based on ET. It would not "pass" the RPT Tuning Exam however but it is not far off. It would typically get a "score" in the 70's in such an experiment. It has 4 pure 5ths: CF, BbF, F#C# & AbDb. The AbEb is nearly pure, being tempered less than an ET 5th. All of the other 5ths are tempered to a degree greater than an ET 5th but by musical standards, still quite mild. In fact, there is not a single interval, 3rd or 5th which has exactly the same size or beating as in ET. Some of the 3rds are slower than ET 5ths and some are faster but none of them are so radically different that a non-tuning musician can really sense that there is anything "unusual" about the way the piano is tuned. In other words, the typical "error" that might be found in a carelessly constructed temperament is carefully channeled in this temperament to satisfy the HT requirement of an alignment with the Cycle of 5ths. Andreas Werkmeister's Rules for Well-Tempered Tuning are satisfied. A copy of these Rules is included in this handout section. The pervasive EB phenomenon gives the temperament and the piano a remarkably harmonious quality. In the simple keys, at the top of the cycle of 5ths, the EB has a certain "cancelling out" effect which makes triads in these keys sound more "pure" than they actually are. In the brighter, more "Pythagorean" side, the wide 3rds find themselves most often expressed as 10ths and 17ths in typical Romantic era writing. There is just enough width in these intervals to create a vibrant "singing" tone that is very much diluted in ET. The pure 5ths in F# and Db give these more strident keys a certain "clean" but incisive quality. Finally, there are in this temperament in fact, 24 distinct Major and minor tone colors. Not one Major or minor triad has the same size or beating 3rd and 5th combination that occurs in ET. In playing through the Cycle of 5ths, you will notice a fine gradation of color change with each key you play in. And true to the character of the original Modified Meantone Temperament from which it was developed, the sharp keys are "favored" slightly over the flats e.g. the flat side of the cycle has slightly faster beating 3rds than the sharp side. It has become my answer to and my alternative to ET. I consider it my "standard" temperament. While many of my customers know about the HT's and that I practice them, I do not always reveal this fact nor do I consider it my duty to do so. There are some PTG Members who believe this to be unethical but I do not agree with that thinking at all. There is nothing whatsoever in the PTG Bylaws with regards to ET or temperament of any kind. Even the RPT Tuning Exam does not specify ET. ET has merely been chosen by concensus. In my view, using ET arbitrarily poses at least as much of an ethical dilemma as the use of an HT. After all, the customer's satisfaction is what is most important, not tuning theories. Providence, July, 1998
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