Togetherness

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 4/1/99 6:35:52 AM Central Standard Time,
Michael.Jorgensen@cmich.edu writes:

<< Test the pianos by playing simultaneous chromatic scales on both.>>

Yes, a test would prove whether they were "together" or not.  When would there
*ever* be such a musical context, though?  I agree that the owner should
understand the reasons why the two can really never match.  It would be the
same problem when attempting to tune a piano and an organ "together".


<< Of related note, for many years piano faculty had one Yamaha 6' G3 and
 Baldwin 6'3" L in each studio side by side.   I found that tuning aurally the
 L first and copying the tuning on the Yamaha resulted in a smooth equal
 tempered sounding Yamaha.  Duplicating a smooth sounding G3 temperament
almost
 always resulted in  "reverse well" ...(snip)>> 
 
<< Good luck
 -Mike Jorgensen >>

Thank you, Mike for your courageous documentation of yet another instance
where the scourge of modern tuning practice can show up, even from a skilled
RPT.

In my opinion, the idea of *averaging*, even though it sounds logical, is the
wrong approach.  You can use your SAT or your RCT to make both pianos exactly
out of tune together and separately.  Why would you want to do that?

Most any use of the two together would not involve playing the same notes at
the same time and even if it did, small differences between the two might not
be *perceived* as being out of tune.  In fact, if they are really exactly the
same, there may be a strange "canceling out" effect between them which results
in a net loss of perceived volume (much as a mistuned unison may sound
"louder" than a perfectly pure one).  The ETD's can provide a match down to
1/10 of a cent but still, any two strings from the different pianos will have
a different inharmonic structure.  There will literally be only one partial
out of many that is matched.

If one piano had higher inharmonicity than the other, you might try
"conservative" octaves on it and "liberal" on the other but of the two that
were mentioned, both have relatively low inharmonicity.  The biggest
difference is expected to be in the wound strings.  I don't believe it would
serve either piano or the music to distort the tuning on either one.  In which
musical context might both pianos be playing exactly the same notes at the
same time among the wound strings??

Tune both to the same pitch, the best that each can be tuned and be satisfied
that they are "together" the best that each one's differences allow.  I'm
afraid that too often, a tuner's perception of what sounds "in tune" is taken
far out of musical context.  This goes for both octaves and temperament.

  A perfectly "smooth" temperament and "perfect" octaves may sound satisfying
to the ear as they are being *tested*, but when actual musical context comes
along, these decisions may have left the piano with a sound that is not as
musically satisfying as it could have been.  This is a perfectly sound reason
why referring to the PTG RPT Tuning Exam as the model for "perfection" in
tuning is not really or always valid.  It is only a theoretical exercise.

Sincerely,
Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin