Bill, Your input is very intersting, even though I may not get everything right. It is true that, if you tune the piano aurally with odd schemes, you may end up with a slight unequal temperament that may have really good taste, even though the goal was to produce an ET. John Travis relates his own personnal experience regarding this in his classic book "Let's tune up!". I am not saying this in a pejorative way, all the contrary. If someone can personnalised his tuning in a way that it suits his own taste and the one of his customers, would it be strict equal, well or anything else, it is indeed quite an achievement, regardless of the technical intentions. The quotation of Jean Jousse dates from 1832 and I don't think it would be relevant as a scientific statement. At that time, they didn't have technical means to calculate frequencies as we have today. It very possible today to tune a perfect equal temperament, using either all the aural tests coming from scientific studies, or by simply using an ETD. I don't think that, as technicians, we have been taught to reject automatically anything that goes outside of ET. But it is true that we seldom have been encouraged to try anything else, by lack of education perhaps. Last week, I have had my first request for an historical temperament on a piano, a victorian one it happened to be. I really liked it and so did my client. I wanted to repeat the experience on my own piano and tried the Fairchild Temperament that softens the simple key (called the piano teacher's delight temperament...). I mostly play by ear and seldom go with too many black keys. What an experience! I have now many keys that sound very much like what we hear with some A Capella choirs that sing with no vibrato! The D natural key is specially amazing. This will be my favorite one from now one! Regards, Michel Lachance, RPT > >Dear List, > >A colleague recently sent me the quote below that shows that as tuning was >evolving toward a more widespread use of ET, it was also found to be a near >impossibility. Although, it was not called, "Reverse Well" in this quote, >the observation is clearly the same as I have been making for years. > >It is easy to dismiss any and all other kinds of temperament ideas in favor >of the "universal" one, the "ultimate compromise", the "neutral palette", >(put in your own favorite argument), etc. Then, say to yourself and >everyone >else that small errors do no make any difference, just as long as it seems >"kinda, sorta, pretty even" (as our retired local symphony conductor used >to >say). > >Would or could these variances result in a true Victorian style >temperament? >I think they could just as easily as a backwards version of it. And that >is >why I think it is important to learn how to tune a Victorian temperament >properly, even if you never plan to use it. I find Reverse Well on just >about every piano I am going to tune or test just out of curiosity. >Recently >I found it on an electronic keyboard. That was the real puzzler. > >Why? How could the programmer have made a cumulative set of errors that >would >result in a temperament that runs 180 degrees contrary to virtually all >music >which will be played on it? Just think about it. As technicians we have >all >been taught to believe and trust in ET and reject automatically any notion >of >tuning anything else but in reality, most of us may have tuned and have >listened to and enjoyed moreover, music from pianos tuned by ourselves and >others that is a backwards version of a Victorian Temperament and have >never >realized it. > ><< In 1832 Jean Jousse wrote, concerning equal versus non-equal temps: >"Each >of these temperaments has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage >obtained by the equal temperament is that every interval and chord is >produced so near perfection that none of them sound perceptibly imperfect; >but it has the following disadvantages: first, that it cannot be obtained >in >a strict sense, as may be proved, not only mathematically, but also by >daily >experience; therefore the best equally tempered instruments are still >unequally tempered, and, what is worse, oftentimes in the wrong places.">> > >Bill Bremmer RPT >Madison, Wisconsin > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
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