Responsive ET

[Jason Kanter]

Broadwood Best, Broadwood Usual, and Moore temperaments are all derived from
Ellis's tune-off experiments in 1885, in which he measured the frequencies
of the tunings done by seven different tuners. He did not record their
tuning sequence, so there cannot be any aural instructions for them in the
historical record. It would be possible, I suppose, to create a bearing plan
that would duplicate these tuning, but to my knowledge this has not been
done.

By the way, Ric Moody has several times questioned the veracity of
Jorgensen's version of Broadwood's Best, noting that they appear to differ
from the actual offsets listed in Ellis's commentary in Helmholtz's book.
Jorgensen goes into some detail about how he has modified the figures,
deducing that certain strings slipped in the 2 weeks between the actual
tuning and Ellis's measurements.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Koval" <drwoodwind@hotmail.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, April 12, 2004 6:27 AM
Subject: Responsive ET


> Hi everyone,
>
> I've got something new to present.  It had been under the heading of
> temperaments, but I thought that many of you may have been quick with the
> delete button and missed it.  Ric Moody and I have been once again
> discussing the existance and use of equal temperament pre-1900.  I decided
> to accept a redefinition of ET after questioning him what methods early
> tuners used to arrive at ET.  He responded with Broadwood's own writing
from
> 1811, claiming sucess with his tunings (ET) pleasing Mozart and Hayden.
So
> on to this:
>
> A growing body of technicians have been discovering the joys and
musicality
> of tuning an earlier version of equal temperament.  One example of this
> temperament, known as Broadwood's best, has been used successfully in
homes,
> in
> recording studios, and on the stage around the world.  With a maximum
offset
> from the
> "sterile, clinical" modern equal temperament of only 5/100ths of a half
> step, all keys are playable, while retaining the preferences of musical
> development and harmony valued by western music.  Others of us have been
> instrumental in developing new versions of this more musical equal
> temperament for everyday use.  Consider the Equal Beating Victorian, the
> Coleman 11 and the Koval Variable temperaments as those developed using
both
> the best of the aural tradition and modern spreadsheet technology.  By
> removing the biases introduced in the middle of the 20th century by the
> development of tuning technology, we've rediscovered the extra connection
to
> the music that these tunings can bring.
>
> Ric's follow-up response expressed his concern for tuning using the modern
> technology, and asking about the sources for Broadwood's Best.
>
> The modern sources mostly filter through Owen Jorgensen's works.  In
> studying virtually all of the earlier forms of equal temperament, a
distinct
> pattern emerges.  The spreading out of the dissonence follows the musical
> rules of composition based on a circle of fifths tonality.  Therefore, I
> propose that it was not a single tuning that was used and preferred by
> composers and performers, but a STYLE of tuning, sharing similar results.
> Therefore, it's not required, or even important to replicate the tunings
of
> the past to recapture a musical equal temperament.  Instead, now we are
able
> to create tunings using much more manipulation of available information.
>
> I think that the advent of machine tuning caused a ripple effect
throughout
> the aural tuning community.  Techniques were developed in the last part of
> the 20th century to allow aural tuners to achieve the same sterile tunings
> that the machines were capable of churning out.  The aural link to the
> tunings of the past has now been mostly severed.  Many tuners that follow
> the directions of the past, without using the advanced aural techniques
from
> the last 20 years end up tuning a version of equal temperament that
reverses
> the pattern of dissonence found in the early versions of equal
temperament.
> Using offsets from machine calculated ET tunings opens a doorway to those
> technicians willing to experiment with another style of equal temperament.
>
> There was a question requesting aural instructions for the Broadwood's
> Best....  If anyone has them handy, please post them back to the list.
>
> Ron Koval
> Chicagoland
>
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