more on this temperament thing...

[Tom Servinsky]

David,
The tuning of wind and string instruments is completely "just" tuning.
ET or HT temperament does not come into play at all. "Just" tuning is
referred to the tuning of absolutely pure intervals.
 Obviously most of these instruments are capable of playing only one note at
time so their tuning responsibilities have several criteria to meet:
Most orchestral instruments must be put into  good relative tune by the
player. That is, they must have a good semblance to concert A440 through out
the instrument in all octaves. The problem is  all orchestral instruments
are inherently relatively out of tune within themselves, so a good player
must thoroughly understand his/her instrument and no where the trouble spots
are.
Orchestral players must all have the ability to react and adjust their
tuning to be in tune with other instruments playing within that chord.
Absolutely pure octaves, 5ths,4ths, and even 3rds must be dead on clean.
So if the melody line is being played by an instrument which has a note
which tends to be sharp, then the other instruments playing within that
chord must adjust up or down to "just" tune to make that interval absolutely
pure.
The interesting aspect of playing in an orchestra is the pitch is constantly
changing to correct and adjust with whatever is being played.  Good case in
point, take a oboe player who basically plays very well in tune but has a
middle G which tends to play sharp. Good orchestras will adjust to  that
sharpness in a spilt second to "just" tune that particular sequence than
return back to the A440 pitch center.
So to answer your question, no... temperament does not play into wind and
string instruments tuning.
Again, as stated earlier, it's amazing that the orchestral tuning and the
tuning of a piano, be it ET or HT with all the complexities they require,
still exist and astound audiences as well as they have done.
Tom Servinsky,RPT
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Ilvedson" <ilvey@sbcglobal.net>
To: "pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 5:54 PM
Subject: Re: more on this temperament thing...


> Ron,
>
> Of course some pianists are going to like HT.  I have talked with one
great
> jazz pianist and he hated HT, absolutely hated it.  I don't believe for
> second that the majority would ever take HT over ET on a regular basis.
> Question:  Do other instruments have to be set up for HT?  What is the
> tuning on a saxophone for instance?  Is tuned to some sort of a ET?
> Obviously pitch can be altered as playing somewhat...how much?
>
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>
> On 10/19/01 at 7:18 PM Ron Koval wrote:
>
> >In response to those that have talked about playing music that is not in
> >the
> >"right" keys for alternate temperaments, I'd like to share a little
story.
> >
> >I work at a performing arts high school, where I freely experiment on the
> >faculty.  A few years ago, a new faculty member came that is a jazz
> >pianist.
> >  This coincided with my interest in tuning alternate temperaments, so I
> >set
> >on his piano many different HTs.  At that time I used the mind-set of
> >making
> >the thirds at the top of the circle of fifths sound BETTER than those at
> >the
> >bottom.
> >
> >An ****AHAAAA**** moment with this faculty member forced me to rethink my
> >'tuner's' mindset.  I had recently retuned his piano and he showed up at
> >lunch and said, "wow, what did you do to my piano?  I played this chord
> >and
> >just had to let it ring, it sounded so great!"
> >
> >Being in the tuner's mindset, I thought to myself, "He must have liked
the
>
> >C,G, or F chord, with the real smooth thirds."  Imagine my surprise when
> >he
> >said it was a Db arpeggio from the middle to the top; over a B, F#, and
an
> >A
> >in the bass.
> >
> >*******AHAAAAAAA********  What an alternate temperament gives a composer
> >or
> >a pianist is like a painter's pallette;  more tone color to play with.
> >Blue
> >isn't better or worse than red, it's just different. Likewise, C isn't
> >better than F#, it's just different. In the hands of an accomplished
> >composer, or performer, alternate temperaments enhance the pallette of
> >sound
> >available through modulation.
> >
> >something to chew on this weekend!
> >
> >Ron Koval
> >
> >Chicagoland
> >
> >_________________________________________________________________
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>
>