Meyerson Fisk "split" Mixture and the Tempered Scale

[Gary Shipe]

I noticed this on the Pipe Organ List.  It relates to some of the
discussions on this list.
(perhaps we need pianos with split accidentals)

It seems to me that I once attended a Guild convention class in which there
was a demo of using acetic acid to assist in the removal of a Steinway
pinblock from the case.


>X-From_: owner-piporg-l@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU  Thu Apr 23 23:38:53 1998
>Date:         Thu, 23 Apr 1998 23:38:10 EDT
>Reply-To:     Tuba Magna <TubaMagna@aol.com>
>Sender:       Pipe Organs and Related Topics <PIPORG-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU>
>From:         Tuba Magna <TubaMagna@aol.com>
>Subject:      Meyerson Fisk "split" Mixture
>Comments: To: fspeller@mail.utexas.edu
>To:           PIPORG-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU
>
>Dear Mr. Speller, and list:
>
>While I cannot speak for the Fisk firm (although list member Greg Bover CAN
>with great authority), I MIGHT be able to shed a bit of light on the matter of
>splitting the major chorus mixture into "Les Quintes" and "Les Octaves."
>When designing a pipe organ for orchestral use, one must remember that
>keyboard musicians perform music in a tempered scale;  instrumentalists do
>not.  To a violinist, an F-sharp is higher than a G-flat, as F-sharp is the
>leading tone in G major.  On an organ or a piano, we must squeeze these two
>notes onto a single key (unless we build an organ with split accidentals,
>which Fisk and other builders have done).
>The pure fifths in a mixture are already clashing with the tempered fifths on
>the keyboard, no matter whether one is dealing with an equal, 1/12 comma
>system, or an historical temperament.  To the orchestral player, this almost
>always sounds out of tune.  Listen to recordings of Handel organ concerti, on
>the few occasions when a mixture is drawn.
>The ability to remove the fifth-sounding ranks keeps brilliance in the
>ensemble, yet seems to provide the clarity that many conductors seek, and
>keeps the string players, with their disposition for accurate fifths, from
>going "bonkers."
>Why does this difficulty NOT seem to present itself with pianists?  Most
>likely because the piano is technically a percussion instrument, with a strong
>initial sound, fading away to inaudibility;  the organ is a STEADY-STATE
>instrument, a unique feature of its design.
>A somewhat paltry analogy might be that we, as organists, feel the same way
>when tierces and septiemes (17ths and flat 21sts) are added to our mixtures,
>in such compound stops as the V-rank Harmonics.  To some, this sounds like
>gritty sand between one's teeth, and the ensemble seems to gain clarity when
>such harmonics are retired.
>Then again, I could be completely wrong... any thoughts from the list or from
>our resident Fiskians?
>Sebastian Matthaus Gluck
>Tonal Director
>Gluck Orgelbau, Incorporated
>Pipe Organ Conservators, Architects, and Builders
>New York City
>
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>Note:  opinions  expressed on PIPORG-L are those of the  individual con-
>tributors and not necessarily  those of the list owners  nor of the Uni-
>versity at Albany.
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