Paul writes: <<I tried my hand at tuning the temperament that Ed Foote included with his class materials <snip> I'm an aural tuner, so setting this temperament was a bit of a struggle. It did work out. All of the checks proofed correct. I had several people try the piano. Their reactions is another story. << Hi Paul, thanks for leaping into the unknown with us! I do hope you will keep track of the impressions of those that listen to your new sounds, the feedback helps immensely in teaching us what is the most commercially viable way to use these various levels of tempering. >>I want to know what is available for tuning instructions for some of these= temperaments for an aural tuner, specifically the Kirnberger, Young, Broadwood Best, and Jim Coleman's temperaments 11 through 16. << Aural instructions for Jim's tunings are beyond me, but the 'tuning to taste" program I gave out,(from Jorgensen) will allow you to hit very close to the traditional tonalities, i.e, making a pure C-E third in the course of the tuning will steer you toward the Kirnberger, and beginning with a C-E at 7 cents will put you very close to the Young. Owen Jorgensen's big Red Book has the aural approach for all of these tunings, and I think it is a good idea for any beginning temperament tuner to work through several. Once the tuner grasps the flexibility allowed in setting up those 12 notes, organizing them to taste becomes easy. If you can tune an aural ET, all of these others are easy,(the first time just takes a little longer). >>Would a chromatic tuner which displays cents deviation be of any help? Perhaps, but tuning them by ear also tunes the tuner's perception, and that is too important to be ommitted. After one is familiar with making the judgements,( I had trouble accepting the tempered fourths of WT until I got used to a Kirnberger), then a machine is a valuable tool in their application. >>I'm very interested in these temperaments and have several people wanting to try them.>> Great! I salute your initiative and hope that you will find a new enthusiasm among your customers. It is very gratifying to hear a customer say that a change from the tuner has re-awakened an interest in their piano! Good luck, Ed Foote RPT This may be of some use. The following is the 1840 Tuner's Guide Temperament #1 (® Owen Jorgensen 1991). It provides a conservative digression between sweet thirds and some with "energy". There are no checks, you will develop a sense of tonal comparison after you do it and listen a little. 1. fork = C5 2. C5 - C4 Just 3. C4 - G4 temper narrow to approx 1.3 bps 4 G4 - G3 Just 5. G3 - D4 narrow 1.3 bps 6. D4 - A4 narrow 1.3 7 A4 - A3 just 8. A3 - E4 narrow 1.3 Trial chord here is C4-E4-G4-C5 and it should sound beautiful. The C-E will be beating about half normal speed . 9. E4 - B4 narrow by .7 BPS, this is a nicer fifth than those previous! 10 B4 - B3 Just 11. B3 - F#4 narrow by .7 BPS 12 F#4 - F#3 just 13. F#3 - C#4 narrow by .7 BPS 14. C#4 - G#4 Just 15. G#4 - G#3 Just 16. C5 - F4 narrow by 1.3 bps 17. F4 - Bb3 narrow by 1.3 bps 18. Bb3 - Bb4 Just 19. Tune Eb4 to make two identical fifths between Bb-Eb and Ab-Eb. These fifths should be pure, but can stand a little temperament. This tuning provides a varied set of consonances, in the thirds, that follow the amount of key signature. If you modulate by fourths, from C, tonic thirds should increase in size until you reach F#, at which point it will begin heading back toward "home". The art is in getting a smooth progression, with no reversals on the way out or in.
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