"Victorian" W.T. or Modified Meantone

[Paul N. Bailey]

Conrad,
        This isn't meant to be a practical aural bearing plan.
Nevertheless,
the pattern of the cents deviation numbers reveals something about pitch
the
standard. 
        It's been some years since I did the calculations for this
temperament,
but I usually work with an intention that the overall temperament have the
least overall deviation from the A 440 ET pitches for all 12 notes, and the

piano will still be as close as possible to the A440 ET tension level.

        I just reviewed these numbers, and here's what I found: 

        If A= 0.0 cents, the overall temperament is 1.6 cents sharp. I
don't like
to lower A much more than a cent, so I chose to lower A 1.2 cents, and
leave
the whole temperament  0.4 cents sharp. 
                A4              A440-1.2cents=439.695 hz.
        Temperament as a whole  A440+0.4cents=440.101 hz.
The overall pitch level is much closer to "standard" than the "A" is, but
we're 
talking about  -3/10's of a hz. at A4; wind players aren't going to have
fits
adjusting to this.
        There is an interesting symmetry between G# and D  at this pitch
level;
they share the same amount of tempering from their ET values, but one is 
positive and the other negative. Remember that D and G# are the two points 
of mirror symmetry in the topology of the keyboard.
        So, it may not be apparent from these numbers, but I am proceeding 
with a practical respect for the modern pitch standard, even when I don't 
maintain strict adherence. As a RCT tuner, should I find myself in a
situation
where I thought having A=0.0 deviation was an overriding concern, I could 
simply gear the whole tuning up 1.2 cents.

        Team tuning of multiple pianos can be a problem, but I don't think
the temperament part is is any more of a stumbling block than are the 
octaves.  As a practical consideration, again, I have enough backup ETDs
to hand pre-programmed computers and SATs to two more tuners, and I can 
program another technicians SAT with my RCT, so we will all be "on the same
page".
As usual with multiple pianos, the problem is resolving the scale conflicts
of the different pianos.

        I was a "troglodite (i.e. strictly aural tuner)" for several years,
and I learned to accurately tune several well temperaments aurally. 
The first one I learned was the DiVeroli Almost Equal Temperament, which is

indeed very close to  equal, but the inequalities are in the right places.

                        Paul Bailey

Conrad wrote:
>>Paul and others,

At 06:56 3/16/98 -0500, you wrote:

As a resident troglodite (i.e. strictly aural tuner) of this list,  I have
a
small question to ask.

I look at this recipe for setting a tuning device and wrinkle my brow a
little.

>           Cents Dev. from ET
>
>c               4.4
>b               -2.3
>a#              1.3
>a               -1.2
>g#              0.3
>g               1.7
>f#              -2.7
>f               3.1
>e               -0.5
>Eb              1.4
>d               -0.3
>c#              -0.4

At no point does it coincide with ET, nor does it coincide with any known
tuning standard such as A440Hz/A435Hz/C523.25Hz/C517.3Hz, etc.

If I tune an HT from a fork or ETD generated A or C using aural directions
which produce the same temperament as above, it'll be different, right?
Or... If another tuner is tag-team-tuning with me for something like a Bach
multi-clavier concerto, and said tuner _is_ using the recipe above with an
ETD, while I'm doing aural from my C fork.  Wow! Instant organ celeste
sound.

Shouldn't recipes contain _some_  standard?  Am I missing something as to
the function of a standard?  Shouldn't _something_ be the same?

Back to my cave.

Conrad>>