> Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:51:27 -0500 "Jeff Tanner" <tannertuner at bellsouth.net> wrote > > In the 20th and now 21st century, professional piano technicians absolutely > must take the practical route unless you plan to be on hand for every > concert, every rehearsal, every composition sitting, etc. Anyone who > "prefers something besides ET" must be prepared to play a limited > repertoire. Today's pianist is expected to be able to perform in every key, > as if each were the same. My number one and most important rejection of the > idea of the implementation of historical temperaments is that it is > completely beyond the scope of reality of expectation to impose that piano > tuners should be expected to be experts in the realm of temperament history > as it relates to musical composition. It simply isn't our call. There is > just too much unknown that we will never be able to know. And CAUTs in > particular, will never be paid well enough to be held responsible for this > kind of knowledge. Imposing it on ourselves would be like Daniel throwing > himself into the lion's den. > Actually, the exact opposite is true. CAUTs will never be able to convince anyone that the are professionals, experts, etc. deserving of higher pay and higher status if the remain "one-trick" ponies, doing the same thing over and over again. Rising professional status goes hand-in-hand with expanding one's knowledge base, variety of services offered and ability to knowledgeably discuss the options available - and offer advice. I sincerely hope that the PTG CAUT committee, currently working on a curriculum for endorsement/certification, sees fit to include historical temperaments and related acoustical and historical knowledge in their curriculum - at least as an elective (you know - x requirements and y out of a possible z electives is not a bad way to structure a curriculum...) I do not proselytize for non-equal temperament. I started with historical temperaments on a harpsichord that I built (long before I got into the piano trade). To my ear, tuning WT's on a modern piano has very little impact (except perhaps something really pungent, like a Kirnberger) and meantone just doesn't work on a modern piano. I do have clients who request WTs or Victorian tunings - and I am glad to be able to oblige, and discuss the options with them. My best best private non-ET client is a jazzer. He couldn't give a hoot for historical accuracy - but he likes either Velotti or Broadwood's Best #1 (and he doesn't much care which one) - because it gives the music a bit more "grit" than ET (his words). And I could cite other examples where pianists prefer something other than ET. What I see above is the usual conceit of - well, I'll omit the adjectives. "My solution is the best possible solution". Or the conceit could be generational "We are the peak of development and what we do is the best possible approach to..." The basic idea behind this conceit is that things have now reached their peak - and will stay the same forever. Never happened, never will. In music - as in anything else - nothing ever stays the same. Musicians look for new - that is unfamiliar to them - experiences, devices and techniques, and as often as not they find them in the past. You can never duplicate the past - but you can always let the past inform the present. And I see musicians and music professors draw on the past to further develop their and their students' understanding and musicianship. These days there is much interaction and interpenetration between the "mainstream" and the "historically informed" approaches to music - to the benefit of both. And we tuners are not going to be able to stand in the way of a developing interest in non-ET temperaments - any more than we were able to force the music world to hew to the A=440 pitch standard. Let me put it this way, Jeff. If the educational institution with which you are associated hires some professor with a strong interest in non-ET tunings, or some professor currently there develops an interest in them (and it happens - those people travel and try new things all the time) guess who is going to lose that battle? Years ago, in Boston, our PTG chapter had a chapter meeting at an organ factory - there is a guy there who builds custom tracker-action organs on order for churches, chapels, universities, etc., beautiful things. The chapter had an eye-and-ear opening experience, and towards the end of the meeting the builder (I forget his name) said that he tunes his organ in meantone - which makes pretty good sense, if you ever heard how awful fast-beating thirds sound on the reedier organ stops. The late Dr. Al Sanderson (of Accutuner fame) was there - he was a member of the chapter for many years - and hit the ceiling. He trotted out every argument about the superiority of ET why would anyone ever consider using anything else - and I remember standing outside the building with him for a good hour late at night, explaining the acoustical and musical properties of meantones and WTs. He listened very carefully, asked a lot of questions, and apparently went on to do some research of his own - because several months later he published a table of Accutuner offsets for various temperaments. Take your pick. You can tilt at windmills, or you can learn something new/old... Israel Stein
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