Dear List, I had the distinct pleasure of tuning for the very fine Dutch pianist, Sebastian Huydts who now lives in Chicago at the Frank Lloyd Wright estate Hillside Theater today. Also in attendance at the both the concert and to observe my tuning techniques was PTG Associate Member, Rozan Brown, who is a reader and recent contributor to this List and who works as a piano technician at the University of Wisconsin Madison. I hope Rozan will write her impressions of what she observed both in the tuning and performance. It is absolutely true that teachers learn from their students and although Rozan was only there to observe a single tuning, done in a limited time, I was able to learn some very valuable and practical things from her as well. Here is the program: J.S. Bach-Fantasia in C-Minor BWV 906 L. Van Beethoven-Sonata Op. 57 in F-minor "Appassionata" Intermission Sebastian Huydts-Second Sonata for Piano (1989) Sebastian Huydts-"Noël" For the Piano (1997) Sebastian Huydts-"Six Aphorisms" (1988) The Equal Beating Victorian Temperament (EBVT) is the Victorian style temperament that I developed which was conceived for the rehearsals of and inspired by the 1993 World Premier opera called, "Shining Brow" which is an American translation of the Welsh word, "Taliesin", the name of Wright's estate. It is also the name of the present day architectural association that resides at the estate, The Taliesin Architects. The Taliesin Fellowship considers live music and the piano to be a very important part of their culture, not just leisure time entertainment. The piano is a 100 year old Bechstein 9-foot Concert Grand whose action was recently replaced by Timothy Farley, RPT of Madison. I am the regular tuner-technician so he had me do the subsequent voicing and continue the tuning and maintenance of the instrument. It is normally kept in the EBVT and it was also chosen for this performance, not knowing what the music would be nor having discussed it with the artist. I only met and conversed with the artist afterwards. As has been publicly announced on this List, I will be demonstrating this temperament and tuning which also incorporates octave stretching techniques which are somewhat known but not very widely. They are an important part of what makes the whole scheme work well. Unfortunately, the combination of the two cannot be duplicated by any of the Sanderson Accu-Tuner (SAT) "FAC" programs alone. Perhaps however, Jim Scott's Tunelab program or Dean Reyburn's Cybertuner program may be adjusted to duplicate it. But so far, the only way to use the (SAT) is to use a combination of Direct Interval Programming (DIP) and Aural Equal Beating methods as have been taught by Professor Owen Jorgensen RPT. I hope Jim Scott and Dean Reyburn RPT will attend the Chicago session on September 21 to help find the Correction Figures that will help others who may want to use this scheme. Owen Jorgensen's recent article points out two very important facts: No temperament or octave stretching scheme is really any "better" than any other. They each merely produce differing effects. The challenge however is to find the exact combination of effects which will best serve the music to be performed. For most of this Century, Equal Temperament (ET) has been thought to offer the very best compromise for the modern piano which has been called upon to play virtually all kinds and forms of music. Only recently has the subject of octave stretching been discussed beyond the mere thought that stretching itself is necessary because of the phenomenon of Inharmonicity. Still, there is an absolute and inviolable "every action has an equal and opposite reaction" relationship concerning both temperament and octaves. In temperament, if any given interval is made to beat more slowly to create a desired effect, another must beat more rapidly as a consequence. In octaves, if one partial selection is made for the sake of purity, then all of the other partials that an octave contains must have beats. Thus, the conventional wisdom has been that the most even distribution of beats in the temperament should produce the very best compromise because the inevitable harshness and perceived out-of-tune sound of an interval of any kind that beats too rapidly will be not eliminated but *minimized*. The thinking about octaves has been less specific. There seems to be more room for individual interpretation, to do what is best under the circumstances. However, there does seem to be the feeling that whatever kind of octave is chosen, it should be consistently applied but even among ET tuners it will vary naturally because different registers of the piano call for differing amounts of stretch. In my view, an unequal temperament, especially the kind which purports to serve the all-inclusive intent of ET can and should have differing amounts of stretch within the temperament as it occurs across the scale as well as in the different registers, low bass, high bass, low tenor, midrange, treble and high treble. There is an important distinction between any of the historically documented Victorian style temperaments and the EBVT. It is the Equal-Beating phenomenon that Owen Jorgensen also mentioned in his article. Not only does this help an aural tuner be sure that the temperament is indeed correctly tuned, there is an important "canceling out" effect that it can and does have in the historically documented Well-Tempered and Meantone Tunings. This effect is not at all imagined. It is as real as the present day technology you may have heard or read about in industrial situations where "Noise Cancellation Systems" have been developed. A noise that is irritating to the ear is canceled out by producing an equal and opposite noise that effectively eliminates the perception of the sound to the ear. Skilled tuners already do this naturally with unisons. I pointed this out to Rozan during the tuning session. The old piano has seen better days, it has many unsupressible false beats, especially in the high treble. Since I always use strip mutes, she could hear that the false beating in many of the high treble center strings was intolerable. The SAT also showed a wavering pattern that could not be made to stand still. She even looked to assure herself that what she was hearing were single strings and not mistuned unisons. She heard that with skilled aural unison tuning, I could actually make the unisons *sound* pure or at least much better and tolerable. Ed Foote also recently pointed this important skill out on the List. In the EBVT, I am able to tune the 3rds at the top of the Cycle of 5ths, those with few or no sharps or flats at about half the size of ET 3rds, slower but not anywhere near pure or "minimized" as would be found in such temperaments as the 1/5 or 2/7 Syntonic Meantone or the Kirnburger or Werkmeister temperaments and even faster than the Thomas Young #1 Well-Temperened Tuning which is usually considered ideal and much faster than the Vallotti which is a common favorite as well. The Equal Beating effect makes the chords found in typical music sound just as "pure" as those of any of the above but since I have not "spent all I have in one place", my harmony at the bottom of the cycle of 5ths, those with many sharps or flats, remains below and within the threshold of tolerance that the modern ear has for what sounds "in tune". I can therefore achieve the traditional harmony and tonality of virtually all Western music, please everyone and offend no one, at least to a large degree. I still recognize that there may be some who may not like it but very few indeed. The Bach piece was one of those that was most likely written for a temperament in which all keys must be accessible, a true Well-Tempered Tuning. It sounded like Bach and while many other temperaments may have worked just as well, I'll bet that the EBVT would not have offended even those who advocate only the early Werkmeister or Kirnburger temperaments for his music. The Beethoven worked just as well. Beethoven often wrote many low voiced chords which sound much too harsh in ET. In my conversation with the artist afterwards, he told me matter-of-factly that many pianists drop the 3rd of those chords because it simply sounds too harsh. He specifically mentioned the Steinway piano saying that its sound was too overbearing in that register. Now, it is so often said that "no one *ever* asks for anything but ET. I have often wondered if these artists know that there is a way around that problem that they *can* ask for. If they do not know, *why* do they not know? I asked the artist after a few other questions if he noticed anything about the tuning. His very reply was, "I liked it!", with a broad smile. That should have been enough for me but I went ahead and explained that it had been tuned differently from perhaps any other piano he had ever played upon. I abbreviated my description of it as being a "true Well-Tempered Tuning". After a bit of discussion, he started to remember some of the details he had heard. One of them was about the Beethoven and another was something about when he played in the remote keys at the bottom of the Cycle of 5ths where he described the sound as "crisp and clear". He obviously was pleased. I gave him my phone number and E-mail address. I am hoping he will communicate further and that I may serve him elsewhere as a concert or recording technician. I may be able to persuade him to make an appearance at the session in Chicago if he contacts me soon. His own compositions were very interesting. I distinctly heard the influence of Debussy and Gershwin in his music. The one impressionistic style piece he played I would have actually guessed to be Debussy. The middle movement of his Sonata I would have guessed to have been written by Gershwin. It had both Jazz and Blues textures. The EBVT has the important feature of the Small Minor 3rd (and also minor 2nd) which not only worked as the composer intended in the Beethoven but served as the so called "Blue Note" of Jazz and Blues in the Gershwin-like section. The encore was a love song by Edward Elgar in the key of F. The EBVT gives F a pure 5th with a very gently beating 3rd. Just a very nice sound. The piece began somewhat like a very familiar piece of Shumann's which is written in that same key. In the middle of it, it modulated to the more remote and vibrant key of Ab, which often sounds a bit too harsh in most Well-Tempered tunings and is the most feared and despised "Wolf" key in most Meantone renderings although many Historical Tuning enthusiasts enjoy that sound immensely (as I do). The EBVT actually gave it a reason to modulate to a distinctly remote and more vibrant key but strictly and comfortably avoided a harsh or "sour" sound that might have offended some listeners. As you can see, I spent a very fine Sunday in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Bill Bremmer RPT
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