Stretch: was "Bloom"

[David Love]

Susan

Well I agree with your humble opinion.  What I am finding is that the trend
seems to favor the melodic intonation over the harmonic as of late.  The
bloom we are talking about, and I think I agree with Joe on this, derives
from a more harmonically based style of tuning and a tighter alignment of
the partials.  I wonder if this bias (if it exists) isn't driven by the use
of ETD's and their preprogrammed format regarding stretch.  I seem to recall
that you are a strictly aural tuner and this may not be an issue for you.
But for those who use ETD's (and I now include myself among those), I can
see how there could develop a tendency to trust the machine to a fault,
losing the ability to judge the quality of the sonorities on one's own, and
not really understanding the stretch choices being made for you.  This was
part of the reason I became dissatisfied with the SAT III and went to the
Verituner:  the style of tuning that it delivered was more in keeping with
my own aural tuning tastes.  Well this is a can of worms now, isn't it?

David Love

----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Kline" <sckline@attbi.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: March 18, 2002 4:35 PM
Subject: RE: "Bloom"


> I consider the question of stretch to be an argument between
> harmonic and melodic intonation.
>
> Tuning narrow may slow the thirds, but when listening to
> the melodies, especially in the high register, many people
> will consider them flat.
>
> Jim Coleman, Sr. did a very good demonstration of this in
> his tuning class. He played a note in the middle register,
> and then, without playing anything in between, he played
> the same note high in the treble and had the class "tune"
> it by ear. It consistently comes out extremely sharp,
> because this demonstration has the class relying on melodic
> intonation.
>
> If you listen to violin recordings, including those of people
> like Heifetz, you'll hear them consistently sharping the orchestras,
> and grossly sharping in the upper register.
>
> Like a temperament, which involves a dynamic struggle between
> the desire for consonant intervals and the Pythagorean comma,
> a good tuning requires an active balancing act between the two
> types of intonation. The tension between them in a way adds
> life to the process of tuning.
>
> JMHO, etc.
>
> Susan Kline
>
>