Robert asks: << So my question is, which is more important to you when you tune an historical temperament - the average pitch of the whole piano or the absolute pitch of A? >> i keep A at 440. This is primarily so that the customer doesn't have to consider "two" changes simultaneously. As far as instability is concerned when changing temperaments, I have never had a problem with it. The Young requires that three notes,(C, F and A#) be raised 6 cents, two others raised 4, three notes dropped two cents and two of them left alone. For detail work, I just quickly pull the middle string of each C, F and A# up until it beats about 3 BPS with the existing unison, and then go about tuning. This has proven to leave the piano at pitch when I am done. With the Werckmeister, there are greater changes,(like the C moving up 12 cents, the F= 10 cents and the G and A# moving up 8 cents. In this case, it takes about 5 minutes to pull these notes up roughly to where they will be, then the tuning can proceed. With the Victorian tunings, I don't worry about the offset at all, since the overall change is so slight that it falls below the radar. (anyone that is knocking themselves out to keep the tolerance to less than one cent in a home -use piano is wasting a lot of effort, the pianos will move that much up or down in the course of a day's changing environment). As far as 440 being a standard, I only worry about that in performance settings,(which I do a lot of). In the home, I keep pianos 4 cents flat in winter and 4 cents sharp in summer. This creates better year round stability for my twice-a-year customers. Regards, Ed Foote RPT
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