At 6:02 PM -0500 1/15/03, Jon Page wrote: >I tuned the center three octaves and let her sample >and she liked it. I tuned the rest of the piano...she loved it. It >is the sound she has been looking for, trying this tuner and that >tuner. > >She liked the warmth it gave to the piano and the enhanced intonation. > >Driving home, I got to thinking; the 20th century gave us the >dumbing-down of education and the toning-down of intonation. > I had a similar experience recently with not as nice a piano. It was a P22 in the house of a man who was unhappy with the blandness and 'regularity' of his tuning, I did a Valotti in the middle section and his face just lit up, he was thrilled, as was I. My 2 cents on the great temperament debate (flame suit at the ready) is that I find the late 19th c well temperants too smooth. My background (longer ago than I care to admit, now) is in harpsichord and fortepiano work where meantones, Kirnberger and Werckmeisters are common, and it is usual for harpsichordists to evolve their own variations of temperaments to suit themselves and their music. I find that the brightness of harpsichords really cries out for the clean meantone thirds, and it is easy enough to retune to move your wolf around between pieces (some early instruments even had split sharps to ease the tuning, you could have both g# and ab on thesame note). However, the modern piano is such a smooth, homogenized sound that the thirds can be emphasized much more, I really think the earlier, crunchier tunings can add a lot of flavor (like a good hot sauce). My piano lived in Valotti for years and is now in Werckmeister III and the kids like it even better. I guess my point is that we shouldnt be afraid to try earlier schemes, they are easily tunable by ear, Owen Jorgensens little yellow book of equal beating temperaments should be still available, and this experience adds greatly to your own perception of the sound of the instrument. In any case, playing with temperaments is a lot of fun and should be treated as an ear opening experience, a chance to listen to those same old chords in different ways, not a doctrine to be attacked and defended, by either side. Also, get out a gamelan record if you want to hear some interesting scales, and these guys tune by shaping the metal and wood keys? tines? whatever you call them on a xylophone type instrument, and do so very exactly. Cheers, -- ----Dave ----------------------------- Dave Doremus RPT New Orleans algiers_piano@bellsouth.net ------------------------------
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