Hi Fred, On the first tuning did you tune with the stage lights on? If not, why? Wouldn't the harpsichord come back in tune for the dress rehearsal after the "dark" day on stage? Just curious. Joy! Elwood Elwood Doss, Jr., M.Mus.Ed., RPT Piano Technician/Technical Director Department of Music 355 Clement Hall The University of Tennessee at Martin Martin, TN 38238 731/881-1852 FAX: 731/881-7415 HOME: 731/587-5700 -----Original Message----- From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Fred Sturm Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 6:48 PM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: Re: [CAUT] harpsichord (was Re: temperature and pitch) On Dec 16, 2009, at 6:33 PM, Fred Sturm wrote: > Some of this is temperature, some is RH. I thought I'd give an update on the last two days with the harpsichord, as there were a couple interesting features. Wed at 5, as stated earlier, I tuned when the hall was 76F/10%. 24 hours later, I arrived to find the hall at 70F/9%. The hall manager told me she had kept the hall dark all day to get the temp down, as it had got above 80F during rehearsal and there were complaints. (And keeping the lights off is really the only direct temp control she has, as otherwise it is just dependent on what the HVAC system does, and it doesn't keep up with the heat the lights put out - without lights, it will hold the 70-71 target quite well). So it was cooler (meaning sharp), but also the instrument had baked at high temp and dry conditions the night before, so the board and bridges would have shrunk a good bit. I checked tuning and found the bass (brass) strings sharp by about 4-8 cents. So the cooling had more of an effect on them than the drying. The steel strings, though, were 6-12 cents flat. I figured at this point the instrument was approaching coming into stability with the dry environment. This being dress rehearsal, I took a little more thought and care. I tuned to 441, and tuned the bass strings up 1-2 cents above that, as a way of hitting an average mid way through the rehearsal that would be reasonably close. The bass octaves can't be much narrower, or they will sound too bad as a first impression, and the conductor will freak (he conducts from the harpsichord). 24 hours later, tonight, first performance. 70F/11%. Bass is where I left it (though I am sure they went flat during rehearsal last night). Steel strings are 2-6 cents flat. I tuned as I did last night. Things will be fine (they'd be better if I came at intermission and pulled up the bass, but money is tight). Anyhow, I hope this description is helpful to some of you who fool with a harpsichord once in a while. The real lesson is what happens to the brass strings. Temperature rules with them, and it takes very little change to produce a big result. Mostly you have to grin and bear it. The other thing is that the soundboard and other wooden parts adapt a lot faster than on a piano. A lot thinner and less bulky. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico fssturm at unm.edu
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