Stretch Vs.Temperament, (was Beat Rates)

[Keith Roberts]

The way I'm thinking about Virgil's tuning, since the fourths are tuned wide
and the fifths narrow, if they both get purer, the octave stretch is
narrowing. The beat of the fourth is what determines the octave stretch.
Virgil said his stretches were about a 9 on the RCT. I happened to walk in
on an out of class conversation where Virgil was trying to explain to
someone how the Yamaha piano wouldn't allow him to stretch it as much
compared to a Steinway.
On the unisons, Virgil tuned them as he went. They had to be as pure as
driven snow in order to hear the difference in the beat rates of the
intervals. He did this because he showed the class that one string played by
itself was slightly sharper in pitch than two strings (both tuned perfectly
to each other) played together. Dr. Sanderson determined the reason.
Keith R

>
> BINGO.
>
> Virgil's been blowing people away with his tunings for 50 years. He's my
> hero.......his stuff works beautifully, at least for me.
>
> Best to all.
>
> David Andersen
> Malibu, CA
>