1/4 comma meantone tuning

[Larry]

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I can understand how some will find many harmonies 'dead' sounding.  Our 
ears are very used to the equal temperament sound.  However, I noticed that 
certain combinations of tones up to dominant 7ths sounded very clean and 
pure.  (I liked it!)  I'm now starting to think that any serious pianist 
should at least try baroque and other early music on an instrument with a 
historical tuning because it may provide a new basis for certain 
articulations.  Now my new lifetime goal is to hear the 1/4 comma tuning on 
an organ or harpsichord!

Well, my C7 is back to ET.  *sigh*

Larry Beach, RPT
Vancouver, Canada

At 07:04 AM 4/13/2001, you wrote:
There are a  couple of things confusing about your experience but basically,
>I think you must have got it.  The classic 1/4 Syntonic Comma Meantone tone
>is constructed by making a chain of 5ths, each one tempered by 1/4 of the
>value of the Syntonic Comma (21.5).  21.5 ./. 4= 5.38.  Tempering each 5th by
>5.38 will make 8 pure 3rds and leave 4 very wide (wolf) 3rds and the last 5th
>which cannot be tuned will be over 40 cents wide.  This untuned 5th is
>usually left between Ab-Eb but sometimes between Db-Ab.
>
>Now, because the piano has Inharmonicity, this changes all of the above
>slightly just as it skews the values of Equal Temperament (ET) or any other
>temperament.  To come out right, the 5ths will be tempered a little less,
>more like 5.0 or 5.1 which will leave the 3rds tempered but less than 1 cent.
>  They will still sound pure but actually have a very slow beat, not quite 
> 1/4
>of a beat per second.
>
>In such a tuning, the octaves should not have the kind of stretch you would
>usually give ET or a more modern temperament.  The temperament and minimally
>stretched octaves will "kill" all of the usual resonance you expect from the
>piano.  The piano will take on an entirely different quality.  To me, it
>makes it sound "antique".
>
>Personally, I don't really like this sound but if you really want an
>authentic sound for early music which comes from J. S. Bach's time or before,
>it is the temperament to tune.  In a concert setting, you would likely choose
>a piano with low inharmonicity and maybe one which is smaller and less
>preferred.  A second piano used for later compositions tuned in a later Well
>Temperament or Modified Meantone would work for music from later periods.
>
>It's not a bad idea in one's home to have the good piano tuned in ET or a
>late HT and the spinet tuned in 1/4 Comma Meantone.  Children practicing
>early music on the spinet in Meantone learn a different kind of sound and
>harmony.
>
>It's important to remember that the 1/4 Comma Meantone is at the opposite end
>of the spectrum from ET.  While there are even more extreme possibilities
>(the 1/3 Comma Meantone, for example), the 1/4 Comma Meantone represents
>about as radically different kind of sound as you can get from ET.
>
>It is possible to tune a chain of 5ths all the same amount by many other
>fractions of the Comma: 1/5, 1/6, 1/7, all the way to 1/11.  The last is the
>equivalent of ET.  The 1/7 Comma Meantone has become popular in my area.  The
>last untuned 5th rather than being a "wolf" is only slightly dissonant.  It
>ends up making the key of Ab have a very powerful, "electrically charged"
>kind of sound.
>
>Enjoy exploring the sound of the 1/4 Comma while you have it.
>
>Bill Bremmer RPT
>Madison, Wisconsin

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