[pianotech] Stretch in tuning

[Susan Kline]

On 5/26/2012 5:38 AM, Ron Nossaman wrote:
> nor was I awfully convinced by the tunings I followed that were flat 
> through octave 5-6, and were nearly a semitone sharp at c-8. 

That was what I heard at a Guild meeting about ETD tuning, and what I 
also heard in ETD tunings which I followed. The dip in octaves 5-6, and 
then the horrid overcompensation in octave 7. I haven't heard this 
pattern much for a long time now. I suspect that the machines got 
better. These days I usually hear (in recordings) that octave 7 is a 
little on the flat side, enough to keep the beats out when octaves are 
played with notes in octave 7, but not high enough to be musical. 
Sometimes octave 7 is SEVERELY flat. And this from recording studios or 
concert recordings.

There are harmonic intervals, and melodic intervals, depending on 
whether the notes are sounded at the same time or in sequence. Jim 
Coleman, Sr. once illustrated quite beautifully that these are not the 
same. In his class he played a note in the middle register, and had 
people tell him how high to make a note three octaves higher, without 
playing them together or playing the octaves in between. He only played 
the high note sequentially after the lower one. The roomful of piano 
tuners chose a place for the high note which was over a semitone sharp.

In the middle register this problem of differing places for melodic and 
harmonic pitches doesn't seem to be a problem, but by octave 7 it 
certainly is. I temper between the two extremes. If I go with what 
sounds really great for a melodic interval, the harmonic interval sounds 
bitter. If I go with straight beatless octaves all the way to the top, 
the notes sound flat when approached melodically -- and music often 
jumps melodically into the upper octaves, sometimes placing a note in 
the upper register from two or three octaves away. When that upper note 
is exactly right, and sounds like exactly the same note as the one 
below, which does require considerable stretching past the beatless 
harmonic octave or double octave, the result is a glistening sense of 
clarity and order.

Besides, why should the highest register be beatless when played in 
octaves anyway? The notes in the top octave tend to be so full of false 
beats some almost sound sandy, even when the unisons have been cleaned 
up as much as possible. I think it's to help the tone project. Any slow 
beating with octave 6 will be totally obscured by the false beating 
anyway, so why not go with something which sounds better when played 
melodically?

I must admit that I got a free ride for octave stretching -- all those 
years of cello study and work on intonation and listening to recordings 
and playing in orchestras left me with a good "template", one might say. 
The old recordings usually have truly beautiful octave stretching. I was 
able to go with my taste for stretching instead of leaning on tests and 
figuring out partials. It is a lot easier, and it has never let me down.

YMMV, as they say.

Susan Kline


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