Historic tuning modes

[Jason Kanter]

By the way, I just last week received my copy of the Six Degrees CD, which I
ordered from Amazon about 6 weeks ago. I've listened to it loud and close
four times through. Wow, it's an ear-opener. Wonderful experience.

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jason kanter * piano tuning * piano teaching
bellevue, wa * 425 562 4127 * cell 425 831 1561
orcas island * 360 376 2799
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> From: A440A@AOL.COM
> Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 21:37:15 EST
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Re: Historic tuning modes
> 
> Greetings all, 
> Been listening to a Werckmeister III on a freshly restored Steinway AIII.
> what a combo.....
> 
> Newton writes: 
>> I think that the reference to ET should be 1928 not 1828.  I
>> likely misunderstood what Mr. Jorgensen said or took libatious
>> liberties.
> 
> I dunno,  it seems possible, if one took a lot of trouble, to tune ET in
> 1828.  But I suggest that there are more pertinent questions, so I'll just
> pitch them out and as always, be interested in whatever various answers are
> posited.  (yea,  dang, this thread has probably turned into a temperament
> discussion, but this stuff just will not go away@!(:?}}
> So,  some questions:
> Was there a market for this?
> Was there enough demand that tuners would have abandoned centuries-old
> harmonic values for a (much) more difficult temperament?   And if so,  who
> would teach them?  Read Montal's instructions and give it a try.  Use the
> contiguous thirds without checks and see how hard it is to get it close to
> ET.  
> Did anybody here learn to tune ET to within say, 1.5 cents of perfect on
> their own without anything to read on the process or guiding advice from an
> already ET capable tuner?  Think any of us could have done it in isolation?
> Is it plausible that ET was anywhere near the standard before several
> generations of instrument repairmen/choirmaster/voice-teacher/ whoever else
> had a tuning hammer in their hand between 1800 and 1900 struggled to achieve
> it?  There were no schools, very scant literature, certainly less
> intermingling than today, and instrument builders all had their own
> temperaments, it seems.
> Does anybody question that somewhere in there ET took over? (If not
> perfectly measurable ET, then at least the 12 notes were close enough, ie,
> spaced  evenly enough to be below the general audience's or users awareness.)
> Was it was close enough to deny any discernable "character" to the keys?
> Judging from the fin-de-sickle compositions, plausibly so.
> These and other questions lead me to believe that while the move from
> Meantone to Well-tempered, (which means "wholly tempered, not "finely" or
> "nicely" tempered), was caused by musical adventurers needing those other
> keys to be more musically useful, the move to ET was caused by its commercial
> appeal.  It was a move that was in sync with a number of prevailing
> attitudes. Science was coming to the fore, ET is science, perfectly
> describable by math.  The manufacturers were greatly increasing their size of
> business, they would have many tuners, and a single standard was easier to
> administer.  With large numbers of valved horns beginning to appear in the
> 1840's, ET made a lot of manufacturing sense.   Composers couldn't be
> avante-guarde if they followed their predecessors, so music DID leave its
> reliance on tonality for a spell.  The move to ET was part of a bigger
> consolidation of culture across the western world. It was to harmony what the
> BauHaus was to architecture.
> The move from WT to ET represented trading the shaping of a palette of
> consonances for an unchanging standard, (which happened to be a brilliant 14
> cent third). Musically, there is a distinctly different  quality to the two
> systems.  They are not interchangable if the maximum expression is to be had
> from the music.  
> There's room for value judgement there, but the listening will be the
> final answer, and that is not a definite thing, either.  Poor choices of
> temperament can be made when tuning non-ET.  I suppose that is one perceived
> advantage of using ET, that a "wrong" choice cannot be made, but that
> security comes at a cost.
> The cost is depth of emotional involvement created by the harmony, and
> I will wind this screed up with the thought that this loss can be measured by
> the slowly fading interest in piano.  We will never see the piano's
> importance return to its glory days of 1880-1920, we can't hope that it will
> replace things like gameboys, synthesizers, drum machines, radios, computers,
> etc. that absorb entertainment time today.  We can't hope that everybody will
> blow up their TV and return to listening to piano music as a central
> activity.  
> As technicians, we CAN hope to create a stronger attachment between
> pianists and their instruments, though, and it seems that the introduction of
> WT does that.  It certainly has in my own practise.    It is a powerful tool,
> it changes the music, it changes the musicians, and it can change
> technician's outlook on life.
> I have seen recently several instances where the WT tech is suddenly more
> in demand.  It may behoove some to look at multi-temperament capability as
> more a financial asset than an aesthetic expression, but there is no need for
> the two to be exclusive.
> Regards, 
> Ed Foote RPT 
>