Hearing the difference-a related question

[tune4u@earthlink.net]

I have known string players who can, consciously or un, play pure
intervals--as in string ensemble work--or stretch and shrink to play with
the piano.

Otherwise, as in a piano concerto, I think the audience just "forgives" the
difference. Methinks there are beats galore when different instruments get
together and play, just due to the different alignments and relative
strengths of partials above the fundamental.

Actually, in a well tuned piano, I think the listener "ignores" slow beats
and rolls in 5ths and 12ths and hears the faster beating 3rds, 6ths, 10ths,
etc., as a pleasant vibrato. After all, two violinists playing a third will
be intentionally introducing "beats," i.e., vibrato, most of the time.

I don't know about 4ths in ET. I find them annoying if I focus in on them,
others seem to like the vibrancy of the sound--again, perhaps, like the
natural or introduced vibrato of other instruments.

It's fun when someone says to me: "You must have perfect pitch," not
understanding that, by and large, we ignore pitch in tuning. My response is,
"Thank God, what a curse that would be for a tuner!"  If I say such a thing,
I then explain/demonstrate, of course.

Alan Barnard
Getting YOUR Weather in Salem, MO


----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Borgstrom" <orchman@attbi.com>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, December 23, 2002 4:02 PM
Subject: Hearing the difference-a related question


> Gentlefolk,
>
> I have been a public school orchestra director for 25 years and am now
> a fledgling piano tuner. In those 25 years, I have been trying to teach
> kids to play beatless major and minor triads, that is to say, to play
> in a Just Temperament, I think. [please take issue and fix anything in
> here that I'm screwing up in the telling, I'm just looking to learn.]
>
> Now, of course, my cherubs honor beatless intervals more in their
> omission, than in their commission <grin>, but that brought another
> question to mind. How can a piano tuned in ET perform with a
> professional orchestra that is ostensibly trying to perform in Just
> Temperament? Or is this a non issue?
>
> If this has been discussed before, please point me in the right
> direction. Thank you for your time!
>
> Steve Borgstrom
> Brooklyn Park, MN
>
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