Franz Mohrs Credibility, was ETDS

[SidewaysWell1713@aol.com]

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In a message dated 9/22/02 2:38:23 PM Central Daylight Time, 
Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no writes:


> I think you have to remember that Franz was primarily a Steinway tuner. You 
> know... Steinways... those pianos that have such lousy scales that even the 
> PTG wont use one for an exam ??? "Lousy scale" essentially  being defined 
> in this context as being "a scale that an ETD cannot reliably and 
> accurately project onto a SAT or RCT type tuning curve". And therein 
> perhaps lies his experience and stubbornness on the issue. He perhaps has 
> actually heard time and time again less then judicious ETD users attempt to 
> force such a curve on such and instrument without due prejudice by the ear 
> to correct for the disparages inherent. 

Exactly.  In his experience, he never met a tuner who used an ETD who could 
either do a good tuning or one that would hold.  I knew and studied Franz 
Mohr's techniques and tuned a Steinway L for him at the Convention in 
Portland the year before I made the commitment to no longer tune in ET.

While he liked what I did with ET very much, he could not accept tuning the 
piano any other way and had his reasons.  From what I know now and what I 
heard, Franz didn't always tune exactly the same way nor did he always tune a 
strict ET.  But he would never talk about the differences he made in clinical 
terms, only artistic ones.  "You stretch the octaves until they shine", he 
would say with a big grin.

He certainly would not ever allow his tunings to be electronically analyzed 
or scrutinized.  He refused to take the PTG Tuning Exam and accepted the fact 
that he would have to remain an Associate in spite of his obviously superior 
skills.  He could never tell you an exact formula for hammer hardening 
"juice".  He never knew what grade of sandpaper he used, it was just coarse, 
medium or fine.  He never measured anything, all was done by feel and 
instinct.

I think this indicates that there is an area of "wiggle room" which needs to 
be explored, studied, documented and understood.  While there is a need for 
consistency which ETD's provide, there is also that area where the individual 
aural tuning goes which ETD programs can't exactly follow or duplicate, at 
least the way they are set up now.

I have often heard and seen people comment that their ETD created such a good 
tuning that they could not improve upon it.  Yet, the PTG Exam Committee does 
just that:  it takes an ETD generated tuning and refines it.  It often takes 
them hours to change it just a little bit, an example of diminishing returns 
for the amount of time spent.  But when the skilled ETD user tunes the exam 
with the ETD, it always scores highly or even flawlessly.  That's because the 
tolerance between what was deemed perfect and what is acceptable is large 
enough.

It is possible to tune an 18th Century style Well Tempered Tuning and still 
come to within the limits of tolerance for the PTG Exam.  I wouldn't call 
such a temperament "equal" and anyone who really knows and wants strict ET 
wouldn't accept it either but it still would pass if done just right.

 I only point this out to demonstrate that the more in depth the subject of 
tuning is pondered, the more questions will be raised.  Since the beginnings 
of tuning history in Pythagorus' time, the issues over what was right and 
wrong and what kinds of effects they had not only on music but on people's 
emotions have been documented.  Some statements are really hot headed and 
abusive.  All kinds of false notions are attributed to the way one tunes or 
tempers, all throughout music and tuning history.

The desire today to want to believe that the question has been answered, the 
problem solved and you don't really have to understand it, just turn on the 
box and dial in a few numbers and out it comes is the most restrictive of 
all, in my opinion.  That's why I don't use someone else's calculated program 
or device, no matter how good they may be.  I simply don't need it.  

The SAT II provides all that I need in an ETD: the ability to measure 
intervals and to store a custom tuning arrangement which no automatic program 
that exists today can quite duplicate.  To me, the most important qualities 
of the ETD are its ability to produce whatever it is programmed to do over 
and over, consistently and its ability to reduce the overall stress in 
tuning.  But the higher forms of art in tuning can only come from years of 
study, trial and error and the ability to make the ETD do what you want it to 
do rather than it telling you what is right.
 
Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin
<A HREF="http://www.billbremmer.com/">Click here: -=w w w . b i l l b r e m m e r . c o m =-</A> 




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