Normally stretched treble sounds flat

[Avery Todd]

Now Jim,

Whatever do you mean? :-) Actually, even when I use my SAT III for
a concert tuning, I usually check my high and low octaves by doing
3, sometimes 4, octave arpeggios. On the slow side. I was a
musician long before I was a tuner, so I want those notes not to
sound flat (or sharp) to me as a musician, no matter what the "tests"
OR the machine tells me.

I've never experimented much with deliberately stretching my octaves
more than "normal" (whatever that is) but maybe I will after reading
John's post.

The one time when I REALLY wished I'd stretched more in the treble
was a tuning for Stephen Hough on the piece he'd had commissioned
for him. It had extreme jumps from low to high, sometimes notes wide
apart played together. If I'd heard the piece beforehand, I'd
definitely have stretched more, especially in the highest octave! Not
bad, but enough to bother me a little as a musician.

Avery (gotta go "stretch" some now)

>Uh-oh John, now that you put it in this context, I may have to
>reconsider my approach. Other than clean (and solid) unisons,
>clean double/triple octaves are where I put a lot of emphasis.
>
>Does this mean I must start asking about the artist and scores
>(Horace and Avery are particularly big on this), then refuse to tune
>where lot's of  arpeggio's are indicated?
>
>Jim Harvey'
>[just when I thought I finally had it right]
>
>
>On 14 Feb 2001, at 20:08, John D. Chapman wrote:
>[portion cut]
>> When we use equal temperament we are already compromising
>> everything but the octaves.  If we tune the double octaves pure,
>> or even the triple octaves pure, our octaves can sound good to
>> us, but to many listeners melodic lines will sound cramped, flat
>> in the treble and sharp in the bass.  Here another compromise
>> might help.  Do we want beautiful octaves and cramped
>> arpeggios, or do we compromise the octaves?
>> I feel that this stretched tuning works especially well in big
>> halls, or in situations where the piano needs to carry or cut
>> through a muffling environment.
>>
>> John Chapman RPT