A question on temperament-Ron

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 1/13/00 4:49:59 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
RNossaman@KSCABLE.com (Ron Nossaman) writes:

<< Hi Bill,
 I have to admit that this sort of thing mystifies me no end. When I'm
 called to tune a piano, I'm concerned whether it's close enough to pitch
 that I can tune it in one pass, or not. I honestly couldn't care less what
 temperament the last tech used as long as he left the instrument in good
 enough shape for me to do my job. I never bother to check the last tuner's
 temperament...(snip) >>

This mystery deserves some explanation.  Yamaha usually supplies a number of 
pianos for use at the Convention.  In 1995, at the Convention in Albuquerque, 
Professor Owen Jorgensen taught his usual class on Historical Temperaments.  
He tuned a mid sized Yamaha grand in 1/4 Syntonic Comma Meantone.  This could 
be considered to be at the opposite end of the spectrum from ET, about as 
*unequal* as you could get (although there are some very unusual sounding 
temperaments, namely the 1/3 Syntonic Meantone Temperament, for example, 
which might turn the piano into something that sounds like it came from Java 
or Borneo).

It was a Concert & Artist pool piano.  Curiously enough, no one had thought 
to require Owen or anyone else to retune the piano in ET when he was 
finished, so he did not.  A certain technician in Los Angeles had the job of 
inspecting all of the pianos that came back from the Convention.  When the 
1/4 Comma Meantone piano was discovered, it sounded so unequal to that 
technician as to be shocking.

>From the point of view of pitch, if the A is at 440, notes around the cycle 
of 5ths would be -3, -6, -9, -12 & -15 and +3, 6, 9,12, 15 &18 cents deviant 
from what they would be in ET.  If the technician didn't understand this, the 
pitch might be thought of as being "all over the place".  You couldn't really 
expect to retune a piano from 1/4 Meantone to ET in just one pass.  It is 
just too different.

That technician had heard about the Baldwin Recital, maybe was there too.  It 
was in 1/7 Comma Meantone where notes were only a few cents deviant from what 
they would be in ET at the most extreme.  Still, this sounded very unusual to 
some people and since no announcement had been made of what to expect, some 
people were really shocked at what they heard.  Even though it was not 
announced, it was no secret that I was the one who had tuned it.

When this technician encountered the 1/4 Comma Meantone tuning, it was 
assumed that I, the one "responsible" for the "shocking" sounding Baldwin, 
must have done this.  This technician was of the mindset that prevails in the 
industry.  There is only one way to tune the piano, in ET, no ifs, ands or 
buts.  The technician felt compelled to tune the piano in ET on the spot so 
that whichever technician would tune it next would not encounter a piano so 
radically different from the way it would be expected to be.  Although there 
was a tense confrontation about this, the issue was resolved peacefully and 
that technician and I are friends today.

What I found ironic was that the piano that I really did tune from that pool, 
a Yamaha C7, (and also did not retune to ET afterwards), in the Equal Beating 
Victorian Temperament (EBVT) was so close to the way it was expected to sound 
that no notice at all was made of the difference.  And this is exactly as it 
is intended to be.  Just enough difference to provide the real texture and 
true Cycle of 5ths tonality expected of any of the Historical Temperaments 
(HT), but not so radically different as to disturb or shock the sensibilities 
of today's artists or even today's professional piano technicians.

It is the temperament which generated the most interest at the Temperament 
Festival in Providence.  A rematch between Virgil Smith RPT and myself took 
place again in Chicago last September.  We did not make a contest out of it, 
we just listened to the different ways in which the different pianos sounded 
when the same music was played on them.  Everybody learned a lot, including 
me.

I am very pleased that the 2000 Institute Committee has asked me to present 
this temperament in a Mini-Tech.  We'll just have to see how much interest it 
generates.  I would also very much like to tune it on a piano somewhere that 
will be used publicly, just so people can hear for themselves what appeal it 
has and that it is also not upsetting to the modern perception of what a 
piano should sound like.

Regards,

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin