[ctuner] Brahms & Well Temperament

[Richard Moody]

..
----- Original Message -----
From: <Tvak@aol.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2002 10:59 PM
Subject: Fwd: [ctuner] Brahms & Well Temperament


> Found this on ctuner.  Thought someone might want to help this
guy out.
>
> Tom S






......................................from
ctuner................................
Hi RCT tuners.

In the July 2002 PTG Journal there's a letter to the editor from
Edwin M. Good, who is the author of Giraffes, Black Dragons, and
Other Pianos. In his letter he mentions that his piano has been
tuned in a 19th century well temperament for 11 years now, and
that he enjoys the sound of Brahm's music with that temperament.

I am especially fond of Brahms's music and would love to hear this
particular temperament. Does anyone know who tunes Mr. Good's
piano? I'm hoping whoever that tuner is, is an RCT user and will
share the temperament with us.

Thank you for your attention and help.

Sincerely,

Ken Strick
..........................end of ctuner post
................................................


    Its almost like a person extolling a piano but when asked, "I
didn't notice the make."   There are more than one "Well" and what
really is a "well"?  Is it the particular coinage of a particular
author?   The idea is interesting.... a temperament other than ET
that allows playing in any key signature without encountering a
wolf.   The temperaments that are being called "Well" seem to be
variations of solving the wolf problem of Meantone by having some
5ths tuned pure to off-set those tuned flat.  This is my theory,
not fact, but I can support it by historical evidence.
    I suppose one would have to contact Edwin Good and ask which
particular temperament and from which source he has his "beautiful
Bluthner" tuned.   When a substitute tuner "gave the piano a very
competent equal temperament...."I cannot express the dismay I felt
at the instrument's dull sound, nor how relieved I was when my
regular person returned and restored its lively, rich tone."

    Yes one would expect a letter to the editor of a piano tuning
magazine to be more explicit especially from an author of a
history of pianos.  As tuners we all want our clients to exclaim,
"what a rich and lively tone my piano has after Mr Moody tuned
it."   So, who tuned it to a well, which well did he/she use, did
they use a machine to achieve the well, did the sub use a machine,
as opposed to the "well tuner" who does not or vice versa?

    To be fair to readers of this post who care about historic
temperaments,  the letter, by Good, to the July 2002 Journal
stated,  "I cannot refrain from a response to something Stuart
Isacoff said in his reply to the reviews of his book,
_Temperament_ {the great riddle}, in the May issue: ' I would
dread hearing certain selections of my beloved Brahms filtered
through well temperament's distortions'.
    Good's response to Isacoff---"My beautiful Bluthner grand
(1982) has been tuned in a nineteenth century well temperament for
11 years now, and I have loved playing through most of Brahm's
piano music and chamber music with piano on it, with no sense
whatever that I was hearing distortions."
    Does Good mean "most of Brahm's music" sounds better in a
"well" but some doesn't, or he that he played most of Brhams music
and all he played sounded good in a well?.

    Its a quibble perhaps, (for sure really) but yes, some of us
tuners at least, are all ears to know which "well temperament"
Edwin Good, one of the curators of the recent Piano 300 exhibit at
the Smithsonian, adores.

    ---Richard Moody