---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Time being short, I'll comment on a few points without copying them. Older tuners in Europe not tuning pure ET: For at least a century, ET has=20 been the one and only temperament believed in. All other kinds not=20 understood nor having any interest, ET has morphed into a curiously mild but= =20 backwards version of a Well Temperament. This has happened because tuners concentrate too much on trying to make the=20 4ths and 5ths too pure. The temperament sequence begins in the white keys.=20= =20 A too pure 5th creates a 3rd which is too wide. By the end of the sequence,= =20 something has to give, so the overly tempered 5ths among the black keys=20 create 3rds which are too slow. *Voil=E0*, you get *Reverse Well*. The younger generation has learned some of the more advanced aural technique= s=20 that came upon the scene about 1980. Many may also use ETDs which help them= =20 get a true ET. Regarding Chopin in "all the keys" and ET. Most of Chopin's writing is in=20 the more remote keys. The romantic nature of his music and the melodic line= s=20 are deemed to be enhanced by the use of 19th and late 19th Century Well=20 Temperaments (WT) by most who have discovered them and put them to use. =20 You'll find his writing in the simple keys to be of a different nature, more= =20 close harmony which is better suited to the smooth and harmonious sound of=20 those keys in a typical 19th Century WT. It has also been my observation and thus my belief that virtually all 20th=20 Century music, including Jazz is also tonal and adheres to the same basic=20 concept. Close, simple harmony is written in the simple, white keys. =20 Sweeping, melodic and vibrant music uses the black keys. Jazz has many mixtures of harmony as well as clashing disonances. This=20 however, does not mandate the use of ET, contrary to many people's=20 supposition. Some people have even experimented with Jazz in 1/4 Comma=20 Meantone and really liked it. I feel that the Victorian or Quasi Equal=20 Temperaments generally serve it best, giving it more clarity and texture tha= n=20 ET does. Since many pianists have been unknowingly and inadvertently subjected to=20 Reverse Well, they have learned to do what I would call "bang harder" when=20 playing Chopin just to get some kind of color out of the piano where it is=20 lacking. For these people, a temperament which curiously goes contrary to=20 the basic theories of how most HTs are constructed, why and how they are use= d=20 seems to work. Ed Foote has experimented with the De Morgan Temperament which does this. I= =20 created a very mild, nearly equal Victorian Temperament which I sometimes=20 transpose up 1/2 step to get this effect. My local colleague, Timothy Farle= y=20 RPT has come up with a brilliant idea which I really like. He tunes a very=20 mild, 1/8 Comma Meantone (it has Victorian like 3rds) but has shifted the=20 "Wolf" from G#-Db to A-E. In this instance, the A has really become a Bbb=20 (double flat). His whole white key side of the scale are double flats. E is Fb and B is Cb= .=20 This creates a mild kind of reversely focused harmony compared to what is=20 expected from the usual HTs. Those advanced pianists who largely play=20 Romantic pieces in 4 and 5 flats and who really lay into the keyboard as soo= n=20 as they start playing really seem to like it. I view it as the antidote for= =20 the damage that the pervasive use of Reverse Well has caused. Steinway tuners tuning pure 5ths: This is natural to this instrument. It=20 has a relatively high degree of inharmonicity compared to most other pianos.= =20 This leads naturally to a wider octave in the Temperament Sequence range, to= =20 purer 5ths and wider 3rds in this range and to virtually pure 5ths by the 5t= h=20 octave and even slightly wide 5ths in the 6th and 7th octaves (also in the=20 lowest octaves). The Steinway piano also lends itself to the so called, ET with pure 5ths=20 idea. In Madison, Wisconsin, we call that the "New York Stretch". The big=20 mistake that can be made is to try to do this with a piano which has lower=20 inharmonicity or a small piano in someone's living room. At best, it will=20 produce a very steely, harsh sounding piano but the usual result is Reverse=20 Well. Believe me, I know, I have heard it literally thousands of times, her= e=20 and most anywhere I have traveled. Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/ba/45/40/49/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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