Ed, Footnotes below ----- Original Message ----- From: <A440A@AOL.COM> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2001 10:30 PM Subject: Re: more on this temperament thing > Sorry for the double post, the first one went out on accident. > > When I wrote: ' > <<Both Steinway artists here in Nashville have told me they are never going > back to ET >> > > Tom wrote: > >>I'm guessing that these artists are not playing Chopin in Nashville. Could > it be that the country tunes they play in Nashville are mostly in the keys of > C, D, G, and A? > > These two are classical artists, Marilyn Shields-Wiltsie and Enid Katahn. > They have nothing to do with the country tunes. > > Tom again: > >>I would actually like to learn a non-equal temperament that favors the keys > of C and G. So many of the pianos I tune have young students who play the > piano. They would never play an Ab major triad. > Would it be possible to use a temperament which would maximize the > in-tuneness of all the white notes? Is there an un-equal temperament that > would serve this purpose? > > Virtually ALL the well-temperaments "favor" the keys of C and G. It is a > characteristic of the genre that the keys with the fewest accidentals have > the most consonant thirds, although these keys have more highly tempered > fifths,(remember, thirds and fifths work in opposition). There will be a few > keys with near-14 cent tonic thirds, and a few with the full wazoo of a > syntonic comma. The Young has one, F#-A#, the Broadwood's have none, etc. > Steve Fairchild promoted what was actually a Valotti temperament for just > this clientele. His rationale is, "Why compromise the keys that are used all > the time just to make the ones that are NEVER used the same?" If we are to > attempt to provide the greatest amount of resonance and harmony from the > instrument, we must reduce the dissonance. That can be done in a variety of > ways, however, one fact augers for the conventional well-temperament. That is > that in any of the WT's, the sum total of dissonance is reduced from ET, > unless the piano is played in all keys equally. This is not the normal > distribution of key signature, however. The keys with more than 4 > accidentals are played nowhere near as much as those with less. This holds > true especially for the consoles and spinets used by the millions of complete > amatuers out there for whom music is a special and enjoyed activity. Most of > these players will never learn a piece if F#, so why compromise all those > thirds that they do use, just to make sure F# is identical to everyone else? > That is one reason to re-evaluate the exclusive use of ET. > I found it very interesting that Oleg tells us the Paris tuners are not > using strict ET, just the young ones! I am sorta surprised, probably > because of the heavy, and I do mean heavy, idealization of ET above all else > that is very predominant in the American piano trade. This is slowly > changing, I can see that, but the preponderance is there and it may make us > erroneously think the rest of the world is doing the same thing. > I wonder what they are doing in Germany or Russia? If I understand > correctly, Steinway factory tuners are stretching their tunings into pure > fifths by the 5th octave. Is that a departure from perfect ET? > Regards, > Ed Foote Ed, As far as the 5ths are concerned, strectching them to be pure, is that a departure from ET. Ok, I'll buy that. But I would rather call it "tempering" the ET, because still the basic premise is it working on as evenly as a progression of 10th,17th,23rds, and so for. The big difference,for the sake of having the upper registers not sounding too flat to many trained musicians, is making a conscience point in the scale to increase the beat speed to accomodate the transgression into a purer 5th. An interesting point that you raise because I have found myself tempering those octaves (5-7th) to make them more musical than straight ET offers. And that would tuning would currently fail the RPT exam. So I'll come clean.... I personally have a problem with some of the features of ET...like contracted 5ths. I hate it, it's not musical, it doesn't follow any rationalle other than help the algebraic equation end of the issue find resolve. I also don't care for a busy rapid progression of 3rds in temperament section as it destroys the warmth of the piano. So the delimna is do I sacrifice the octave stretch to open the 5th or do I go wide, get the pure 5th, and sacrifice with extremely busy 3rd's. And then there's somewhere in the middle where a musical decision can accomodate both. Which is where I tend to be. Not an obvious contracted 5th, not much but just enough to satisfy the equation. It's when I get to the 5th octave that I consciencly move and the 5th will begin openning up and the tuning begins to take on another flavor. A much more musical flavor, yet still with the basic of ET. Is that still ET? ....your call. I guess my dicotomy is I'm trained and current performing symphony musician. I have my degrees in music. I've studied it all my life. I perform as a pianist as well. Plus, obviously, I work on these critters. In symphony work we always aim for absolutely clean 3rds. If your part is playing E4, and a C4 and G4 is being played, you better make sure you are centered dead on. There's no grey area in symphony work. Digress to tuning of a piano...entirely different set of principles. Yet somewhere in the end, and amazing as it is, the 2 can exist on stage blending as though little or no problems exist. Tom Servinsky,RPT > >
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