[CAUT] HIstorical temperaments and compensation

Zeno Wood zeno.wood at gmail.com
Tue Feb 3 07:46:51 PST 2009


Alan -

We have a 16-station Korg keyboard lab, with a GEC (teacher
controller), etc.  The keyboards have some pre-set historical
temperaments, although I don't know which ones, or how many.  I've
been meaning to look into it in my spare time...

-Zeno

On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 5:08 PM,  <reggaepass at aol.com> wrote:
> List,
> This past summer I had a long meeting with my dean.  We covered everything
> from what I like and don't like about working here (all matters large and
> small) to additional funding for the piano shop and the prospects for
> enhanced compensation for yours truly.  He responded well to many of my
> suggestions along these lines.  One was that the piano shop start being
> reimbursed for any unusual tunings.  Until now, this has meant alternative,
> modern tunings (anywhere on the spectrum from simply tuning one piano down
> 50 cents for quarter tone music to realizing original tuning systems).  This
> service had been freely provided as an indulgence to the students and
> faculty, creating more of a burden for me without any extra
> compensation--the bad scenario articulated by Jeff Tanner.  My dean has
> since agreed to compensation for the piano shop in exchange for any unusual
> tuning work.  Here is how we have structured the procedure: Someone requests
> a non-ET/440 tuning; I make a binding estimate for how much time it should
> take; we multiply that times a wholesale private rate (i. e., less than I
> would charge someone privately, but more than what my salaried rate at the
> school comes out to per hour); they determine if/how it will be paid for,
> and we go from there.  It turns out that the composition department, for
> example, has funds for "programming" which can be used for paying for
> alternate tunings.  This has been a positive development in that i t is a
> source of income for the shop while also serving as a, er, "consciousness
> raiser" for those who dabble in alternate tunings as part of their work.
> I am considering trying to include historical tunings under this same
> umbrella. I have yet to put one on a piano here (harpsichords only, so far).
>  The current plan is this: Set up a work station that would enable pianists
> to play their pieces on an 88 note weighted keyboard controller hooked up to
> a computer that can provide piano samples in any number of historical
> tunings.  Ideally, the pianist would be able to change from one tuning
> system to another at the push of a button.  In addition to the educational
> value such an opportunity would potentially have in and of itself, it could
> serve as the "menu" for ordering up a particular tuning (compensation
> provided!) for performance on an actual piano.  Am I trying to reinvent the
> wheel here, or does someone already have something like this up and running?
> Cheers,
> Alan Eder
> ________________________________
> You can't always choose whom you love, but you can choose how to find them.
> Start with AOL Personals.



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