By the strictest definition, a wolf or wolftone does not exist in unrestricted temperaments such as equal and well (unless someone has done a really poor job of tuning). In temperaments such as mean tone and Pythagorean, a "wolf" is the means of accounting for the comma as an untuned difference at the end of the tuning scheme. The story goes that the term "wolf " originated because the interval E-flat G-sharp in Pythagorean tuning, when sustained on an organ sounded like wolves howling in the distance. In more recent usage, a wolftone is any beating interval, or even a beating unison. Frank Weston ---------- > From: Alexander Galembo <galembo@psyc.queensu.ca> > To: pianotech@ptg.org > Subject: > Date: Thursday, March 05, 1998 9:53 AM > > Hi, > > I have two questions to everybody who can answer them: > > 1. I never heard wolftones in pianos, though they were mentioned in > literature. How they sound? In what range? What a pitch they have? Is there > any publications describing them? > > 2. Long time ago, some serious piano makers (such as Steinway, Baldwin, > Yamaha etc.) were conducting and using acoustical research of pianos. Now , > as I know, Steinway and Baldwin do not. > Which piano firms in the world are making or supporting acoustical research > presently? > > Thank you > > Alex > > > Alexander Galembo, Ph. D. > NSERC-NATO Science fellow > Acoustics lab, Dept. of Psychology, Queen's University > Kingston ON K7L3N6 > Canada > > Tel. (613) 5456000, ext. 5754 > Fax (613) 5452499 > E-mail: galembo@pavlov.psyc.queensu.ca > URL : http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/8779/ >
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