e.t. comment for your response

[Frank Weston]

Stephen Birkett wrote:
> 
> In an on-going discussion on hpschd-l the following comments appeared:
> ....
> >> A.Streicher specifically states that the fifths beat equally. Your
> >> statement makes the "naive" think than modern tuning  was in use in
> >> 1800.
> >Please define "modern tuning."  What I'm trying to say with this
> >thread is that equal temperament or something very close to it was
> >used in late 18th- early 19th-century music.  I don't know of any
> >piano tuners who tune *perfect* ET on modern pianos.  Does this mean
> >that modern pianos are tuned to circulating temperaments?
> 
> (neither of these is from me)
> 
> Any comments from you piano tuner guys and gals? Don't you all tune
> perfect ET?
> 
> Stephen
> 

If I ever saw flame bait, this is it!  But, I’m a sucker for tuning
arguments so here goes:

It’s highly unlikely anyone ever tuned "perfect" ET.  Close maybe, but
not perfect.  Even machine calculated tunings can’t be perfect because
of the physical limitations of the instrument and the person translating
the perfectly calculated theoretical tuning to a real tuning. 
Furthermore,  if by chance, someone did happen set a perfect ET, it
would last only as long as the first keystrokes.  We try to set
"perfect" ET, and we get close, but attaining mathematical perfection is
almost impossible.

The definitive expert on the question has to be Jorgensen.  Here is SOME
of what he has to say on the subject.

"…… we must conclude that equal temperament as we know is was not tuned
on pianos during the 19th century.  A study of the instructions for
tuning given in the present book (by A. J. Ellis who invented the cent
measurement)  for the years through 1885 verifies that essential
acoustical information for tuning equal temperament was lacking.  This
was one reason for the 19th century tuners’ inability to tune equal
temperament by ear.  Other deviation was due to the basic concepts of
tuning then in vogue.  19th century tuning by ear was a highly developed
art based on aesthetic judgments for every tone, and test chords were
used more than test intervals.  By contrast, 20th century tuning is a
mathematical skill."


Frank Weston