[pianotech] stealth tunings

[Joseph Garrett]

Mr. Renaud said:
 "Couple thoughts on the excellent email below.
 
The facts regarding science, proofs, experimentation, protocols testing
hypothesis
As discussed below are true , NEVERLESS, I somewhat disagree with it
Insomuch 
As adding a whole dimension that is missing.
 
Music is art. We work for artists. We are technicians, and tend to analyze
everything technically. Our discipline Crosses over between art and
science, in a space preloaded with a long history of tradition And
discovery based on human intuition, human creativity and antidotal
evidence. The whole evolution of music itself is an has been largely
powered by human creativity and inspiration and "experimentation" that has
mixed standing on the shoulders of those that came before and mixing in
something that comes from "inside", from " the space" from "the gut"
 
Yes, analysis and critical thinking is often part of the process, but I
think the majority of musical
Evolution is far beyond that. A little story to illustrate. Charlie Parker
along with "Dizzy" basicly invented the bebop style. Charlie did not have
much to say about it, and their are no books and articles put out by the
inventors. The only thing he ever had to say in an interview when asked
about his thinking as he developed the gendre was this. " one night I was
playing around with the upper tensions of the cords, and suddenly I found
that I could finally play what I was hearing in my head." Thanks for the
lesson Charlie. Bill Evans I think was just playing with passing tones, and
leading chromaticism between cords and instinctively as well as
intellectually experimented untill it worked and became a whole school of
playing unto itself.....
 
Things are not so black and white all over. Even the stament below is just
not true.
---------------------------------
It seems to me that much of what we hear when we hear music, is what we
EXPECT to hear ? that is, we have absorbed a 12-tone equal-temperament
scale from the time we were little babies, so that is what we hear
--------------------------------
 
Every orchestral piece, every sound trax to every movie that has real
orchestra Is not in 
Equal temperment. String players can put it where they want. The pitch
breaths a bit as well.
I have sat in a professional national orchestra with the conductor yelling
out to the strings 
"lower those thirds, lower them more, I'm old fashioned" " raise that
leading tone more, more tension" etc. etc. They can and do have their way
with the color of the cord dependent on its function and color of the
moment. An orchestra can have many placements of a C natural 
Varying from cord to cord, moment to moment defendant on harmonic function
and color.
It is a "variable breathing temperment" and often quite far from equal,
 
We are exposed to this all the time. Orchestral scores like " lord of the
rings" and 
Thousands of others we have been exposed to. We hear unequal breathing
temperaments
All the time. 
 
So I am happy to try to respect both the science and art together, and when
they appear to be in Conflict , respect the fact the great artists we serve
have evolved this great medium we swim in, music, largely through discovery
of what is there by instinctive creative human trial and error, being
satisfied with antidotal results enough to persist through it untill they
get something 
That works for them. There remains something intangible about music. Unlike
science, more like love, commitment, trust, faith, human qualities that
defy quantification, music touches into the human soul and invites this
sort of loose "experimenting" in the unknown. 
 
We are technicians, and all analysis is good, all is profitable, but there
is more to the medium, there remains a subjective human eliment that is
real, illusive, and intangible.
Such is the ocean we swim in, they are deep waters.
 Cheers"

Dave"
Those are, indeed, profound words! I have never heard it put so wel.Thank
you! If you'll notice, I'm sending this to myself, so that I can have a
copy handy.<G>
Best Regards,

Joe Garrett, R.P.T.
Captain of the Tool Police
Squares R I