Ravel, Kawai & 1/7 Comma Meantone

[Kristinn Leifsson]

Dear Bill,

I tuned for him once when he came to Iceland.  He´s pretty good, and was
very grateful.


Kristinn Leifsson
Reykjavík, Iceland



At 11:25 10.4.2000 EDT, you wrote:
>Dear List,
>
>Saturday night, April 8, the French pianist, Désiré N'Kaoua continued his 
>series, this time on a brand new Kawai 9 foot concert grand again tuned in 
>1/7 Comma Meantone.  The title of his recital was written in French in the 
>program:  "L'Intégrale de L'Oeuvre pour Piano Seul de Ravel" meaning "The 
>Complete Works of Ravel for Solo Piano".
>
>That's right, the artist gave a 3 hour concert (plus a 1/2 hour
intermission) 
>in which he played all of Ravel's works for piano in 1/7 Comma Meantone.
The 
>temperament gave the piano and the music an entirely different perspective 
>from that produced by Equal Temperament (ET).  It was all positive though, 
>never once did I hear any chord or phrase which sounded inappropriate.
>
>The 1/7 Comma Meantone Temperament (1/7MTT) was invented by a Frenchman,
Jean 
>Baptiste Romieu in 1758.  It is one oof the Equal Beating (EB)
Temperaments.  
>It has the same EB properties that I used when constructing the Equal
Beating 
>Victorian Temperament (EBVT) that I most often use.  In fact, the EBVT can
be 
>properly defined as a 1/8 Comma Modified Meantone Temperament.
>
>The EB properties of both 1/7 and 1/8 Comma meantone (and Modified Meantone) 
>Temperaments cause close harmony played in the simple keys (with 0-3 sharps 
>or flats) to sound much purer than they really are.  This also permits the 
>remote keys (with 4-6 sharps or flats) to sound less harshly than they do in 
>many other Meantone or Well Temperaments.  This makes the temperament useful 
>for virtually any type of music, the way only ET is thought to be.
>
>The 1/7CMTT does have a "Wolf" key (Ab) but it does not really qualify as a 
>"Wolf" by the accepted definition of that term.  It is an 8 cent wide 5th.  
>While it does sound just a bit dissonant when played by itself, it actually 
>is absorbed or "swallowed" in any typical musical context.  In other words, 
>you don't really hear it. What you do hear is a powerful, "electrifying" 
>resonance in the key of Ab.
>
>Mr. Tim Farley RPT, the host of the event feels that so many French Romantic 
>composers wrote in the key of Ab because they wanted and expected to hear 
>that especially powerful sound from that key.  This sound can only be heard 
>if the temperament is a true Meantone.  It does make sense to me that if 
>Romieu invented this temperament in the middle of the 18th Century, it may 
>have still been in use 100-150 years later.
>
>Now, I do hear repeatedly that Chopin, Debussy and Ravel all "require" ET
and 
>have certainly never heard a piano tuned in 1/7CMTT anywhere but in Madison 
>(with the exception of the time I tuned it at the Albuquerque Convention in 
>1995).  But when I think of Helmholtz reasoning and Dr. William Braid
White's 
>teaching (the foundation for the current exclusive use of ET), I find that
to 
>say that only ET is right for this music is at least as far fetched as you 
>might say Mr. Farley's reasoning is.
>
>After hearing 3 hours of Ravel in 1/7CMTT, I would never care to listen to 
>Ravel in ET again.
>
>If the very name of the temperament scares you, just remember that ET may 
>also be defined as a 1/11 Syntonic Comma Meantone Temperament.  In order to 
>tune it properly, you must temper each 5th of the Cycle of 5ths by exactly 
>1/11 of 21.5.  That is, theoretically speaking, of course.  Inharmonicity 
>changes that 1/11 value by an unknown amount which is your problem to
solve.  
>Tuning any Equal Beating Historical Temperament (HT) is much easier by far. 
>
>>From the point of view of the 1/4 Syntonic Comma Meantone Temperament 
>(1/4SCMTT) typically used in the Baroque period, the 1/7 and 1/8 Syntonic 
>Comma Meantone and Modified Meantone Temperaments are much closer to ET's 
>1/11 Syntonic Comma than you might realize until you begin to work with and 
>experience it.
>
>Bill Bremmer RPT
>Madison, Wisconsin
>
>