Doug asks:
> I believe the concert tuners for Steinway in the basement in NY use
>ET for the best pianists in the world. In some of the greatest concert
>venues in the world.
It was my understanding that much of the factory designated tuning
followed a "perfect fifths" pattern in the mid to upper treble. This is a
departure from ET, and perhaps someone can find the postings concerning this
topic from last year.
>Does this mean that because they are playing in ET
>pianists such as the late Horowitz played with "diminished sensitivity"?
>Or that the worlds greatest pianists who went to the worlds greatest
>music conservatories are uninformed about what "keyboard tonality is and
>how to work with it"?
I believe the answer is yes to both of these questions. I have spoken
with a number of performing pianists, and am astounded at the ignorance when
the topic is temperament!! They may discuss stretch and unison clarity, but
when you ask them about temperament, the status quo is used to cover their
inability to even discuss the concept.
Just because someone is a gifted artist does not mean that they have been
exposed to the historical tuning that preceded our modern age. It would be
interesting to know how many artists on the Steinway roster have any
experience with era-appropriate tunings for their repertoire and rejected
them.
Regards,
Ed Foote
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