inharmonicity and "Re: newbie questions: stretching"

[Charles Neuman]

Richard Brekne wrote:
> I might recommend the book "On Pitch"  available through the PTG Home
> office, after you are comfortable with the basics of the harmonic seires
> and coincident partials.

Thanks for the suggestions. Yes, I'm comfortable with the physics part of
it, and I'll be sure to get that book.

I just got ahold of a Scientific American article from December 1965
called "The Physics of the Piano". I think it was also printed in a book
about physics and music at one point. The article discusses inharmonicity.
The most useful part of the article, in my opinion, was when it said that
the idea that the stiffness of the string contributes to inharmonicity was
known to Lord Rayleigh in the 19th Century, and he included it in his
calculations. The conclusion of the article suggests that inharmonicity is
not necessarily a bad thing which needs to be improved upon. In fact, the
author says it adds to the warmth of the piano.

I'm curious about something: are the treble strings the same thickness and
stiffness in a small grand as they are in a large grand?


Richard Brekne responded to Richard Moody's post:
>> Piano tuninig is done first and last by beats, not by sound or
>> intonation.
>> --Richard Moody
>
> I would have to take issue with this statement...

That's exactly what motivated my "science vs art" question on stretching.
In the excerpt above, he seems to favor the "science" side of it, but by
the end of that post he in fact mentioned the "art" part of it.

Charles Neuman