newbie questions: stretching

[John Meulendijks]

When I get the impression I get to low with my highest treble side, I tune
beatless over three or even four!! octaves. I check if it is beatless in the
upper octave,
and it mostly is. So what is all this talk about stretching. I blame the
fysicist who published the results of his research saying that the frequency
of a upper partial is more than twice, three times etc. You cannot hear
that. Because it is all in the system incorporated. You don't need to
stretch to make it fit. When it fits it is stretched. You cannot hear it. So
actually I blame all the followers of fashion.
On the other hand: you can make a deliberate choice to do so because then
you have something to talk about. Some musicians want you to do it, but I
never came across one who said that my treble side was to low. So I never
needed to do so. And again in my opinion I don't strech the treble side.
In the bass it is of some importance to my opinion. Because I experience
mean sounding intervals as a result of clean octaves. I.e. the quint (fifth)
and the 5+8. When I stretch to much in the bass I get dirty 10th's. So how
can I match this with your question?? I prefer in the contrabas very
beatless octaves, because this is often the way they are played. And above
all I don't want for example F'-a to be more fast than F-a. It spoiles the
feeling of the root of a chord. But attention: my last check is A''-a,
Bb''-Bb etc. And Most of the time I don't hear beats. So I only have focused
on stretching, but not really doing it (I mean upon above the natural
stretch that you can't hear.) What puzzles me is that I have the impression
that the octave plus quint gets oversized in the lower bass, without beats
in the octaves.

John Meulendijks
Tilburg, the Netherlands.

----- Original Message -----
From: Charles Neuman <cneuman@phy.duke.edu>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2001 4:03 PM
Subject: newbie questions: stretching


> Is stretching the high treble an art or science? That is, do you balance
> the single and double octaves by whether or not it "sounds good", or do
> you go by a specified amount of stretch in cents? I've heard both
> opinions.
>
> If it's more of an art, I would imagine there are those who favor the
> single octaves and those that favor the double octaves. Is this the case?
> Also, do performers ever specify the amount of stretch they like?
>
> As for the bass, I'm finding that if I tune the bass notes at other than
> beatless octaves, it sounds muddy and out of tune. But then I get those
> horrible sounding 10ths, which I know I should expect. Any advice on
> balancing these two problems?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Charles Neuman
> Plainview, NY
>
>