Explanation of Reverse Well

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 3/13/99 2:05:29 PM Central Standard Time, drose@dlcwest.com
writes:

<< I read your post with great interest. Could you please expand on this
 particular point? The size of the octave i.e. pure. Pure at *what* partial?
 2:1? 4:2? 6:3?
 
 6.No octave should be altered at all from just intonation.  (In actual
 practice on a modern piano, the octave may be widened very slightly from just
 ((pure)) intonation).
 
 
 Regards,
 Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.M.T., R.P.T. >>

Thank you very much for your reply, interest and question.  You will notice
that I used the word, "may" in my comment.  You have to remember that this is
Andres Werkmeister talking here long before there was anything like a modern
piano.  Octaves were properly thought of as "pure" and that's that.

This whole discussion about octaves can really be about as infinite as the one
about temperaments.  The kind of sound you want from any given octave in any
given register of any given piano should be open to judgment and it creates a
very large number of possibilities.

>From what I have seen you write, you like 2:1 octaves because to you, they
seem the "purest".  And that is your prerogative.  It makes the pianos you
tune have that special character that you give them.  This is also true of the
way I choose to tune with deliberately unequal temperament and tempered
octaves.  It works for me in my experience and gives the pianos I tune a truly
unique sound.

What Werkmeister meant to say was that it is not proper to compromise an
octave to accommodate another interval.  When we widen an octave on a modern
piano to adjust for inharmonicity, we have to adjust *all* of the other
intervals to compensate for it.  You might reason that a more contracted
octave would make that easier but I actually prefer working with a high
inharmonicity scale like the Steinway has because I feel that I have more to
work with.  

The ET with pure 5ths temperament is easier to do on a Steinway and it is the
reason that many really good Steinway tuners tune that way or get close to it.
It is naturel for that piano.  I came one time to a piano on which the ET with
pure 5ths was *attempted*.  It was a Yamaha console with moderate
inharmonicity.  The customer was informed that it was something different.  He
did not like what was done at all and was not willing to give that technician
another chance.  I got a call by the luck of the draw.  What I encountered was
blatantly obvious Reverse Well, not ET with pure 5ths.

  The customer *loved* my Equal-Beating Victorian and I have been their loyal,
every six months tuner ever since.  The customer plays advanced classical
repertoire.  He said that the previous tuning "made all the chords sound wrong
and shrill".

That technician is well known as one of the finest in the area (it is one of
my out of state customers).  I'll bet that if he had stuck to regular ET and
tuned conservative octaves, he would still be their tuner.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin