Perfect tuning

[Horace Greeley]

Osten,

(My apologies for the lack of the umlaut.)

At 08:36 PM 2/6/97 +0100, you wrote:
>
>>This is why it is so important (at least in serious concert work) to have
>>some sense of the literature.
>
>>Horace Greeley
>
>How do you mean? Please elaborate.
>

I am really old fashioned.

I cannot imagine using strict equal temperament (whatever that really is,
and: do we ever really, truly use it, anyway?), when I can choose not to.
This is not to say that I radically change temperaments with each tuning,
or that I subscribe to the wanton use of historical temperaments.

It is my minority, and not so humble, opinion, that the vast majority of
listeners, including technicians, cannot discriminate _during performance_
between many different temperaments unless they are pre-programmed as to
what to expect.  At the most, even reasonably well educated ears will
usually only be able to detect appreciable amounts of stretch.

On the other hand, let's look at a couple of different examples:

1.-	Let's say that on a particular recital, the soloist has chosen a
variety of literature,
	but that the real "toe-tapper" will be the Bach-Busoni Chaconne (or,
perhaps, for you
	history buffs, the Bach-Siloti Chaconne).  Other things being equal,
and/or non-
	descript, I might choose to tune a "temperament" in which I put perfect
fifths on
	D-A, A-E, and, perhaps G-D.  I might, in that case, also choose to make
the major
	thirds between those fifths more "just" than "equal".  I might also make
sure that
	the stretch was positively spine-tingling, especially in the 5th and 6th
octaves.

	Notice, please, the large number of "might"s in the above.  This is where
the idea
	of the literature begins to be important.  What else is on the program?
Just how
	"just" can one make those thirds without making something else unworkable?
 Will
	the stretch you do for late-Romantic transcription work for the Haydn
Sonata on the
	front half of the program?  Or, is the range of the Haydn Sonata limited
enough that
	you can modify what you want to do for the transcription?  et cetera ad
nauseum.

	Now notice that none of these questions can be addressed before you have a
sense of
	"will this piano do what I want it to do?"

2.-	On another recital, the "toe-tapper" is Prokofief 7th Sonata.  Play
with the temperament?
	Not on your life.  Just hope unisons hold.  Here again, though, what else
is on the
	program?  A Chopin Nocturne, or perhaps Opus 28, you say?  Hmm.


3.-	Would you use the same "width" of unison for a Bartok Concerto as you
would
	for one by Mozart?

In these cases, we have, in essence, added a fourth dimensional set of
variables to the already complex set of things affecting the moving target
that is piano work.  This is not apprentice-level work.  Who appreciates
it?  Maybe 0.1% of the people you will ever tune for.  Who can really
identify (properly) what you have done?  I've worked with 3, maybe 4, in
30+ years.  Of the 0.1% who can appreciate it, how many do?  The real
musicians will make sure you know that they know; all the others are just
for practice.

As Franz (Mohr) has said for decades, the most important things are:
Tuning, Voicing, and Regulation.  Then come: Tuning, Voicing, and
Regulation.  Etc.  If the regulation is not good, you cannot tune.  If the
tuning is not good, you cannot voice.  If the voicing is not good, you
cannot,
at a certain level, regulate.  Yamaha used to have an image they called the
"Kenzoid", which expressed their concept of quality piano service.  These
three were at the core of the image.

Now, aren't you sorry you asked?

Best to all, and thanks for asking.

Horace


Horace Greeley

"People forget that it is the little acts of every day that make or
	unmake character."

		 - Oscar Wilde

Stanford University
email: hgreeley@leland.stanford.edu
voice mail: 415.725.9062
LiNCS help line: 415.725.4627