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If you can't come up with definite instructions for
the particular piece, my advice would be to simply leave the piano in equal
temperament. Harrison was fond of a wide variety of tunings (actually,
virtually anything _but_ equal temperament), particularly various pentatonic
scales and "just" intonation (by which he, like Harry Partsch, meant whole
number ratios; which, unfortunately, often leaves a bunch of questions
unanswered for us practical tuners). But he also favored historic temperaments
for keyboard instruments - in a forward to an edition of pieces for harpsichord
or piano, he listed a few he thought would be appropriate.
<br> One of the problems with just intonation, whether
pentatonic or 12 tones or whatever, is that you need to know what is the
"base" note to start from. Start from the wrong one, and you'll be way
off. And, of course, if you're dealing with gamelan style instruments,
you really don't know what that pitch might be until you have the actual
instrument that will be played in the room with you (and even then, it's
a bit hit and miss - which partial is it you should focus on? how hard
and with what sort of mallet do you hit it?) Enormous can of worms.
<br> So why ruin the stability of your instrument (temporarily)
on a wild goose chase that might be nowhere near what is desired?
<br>Regards,
<br>Fred Sturm
<p>Dennis Johnson wrote:
<blockquote TYPE=CITE>That sounds like something I heard Owen Jorgensen
talking about once. If so, it's definitely not a simple tune the first
time. If you are really interested and serious about it, I would
probably give him a call for imput. Otherwise- ........."wing it".
<br>They know the request is way out there going into it, which should
imply some flexibility.
<p>Dennis Johnson
<br>St. Olaf College
<br>____________
<br>Otto Keyes wrote:
<blockquote TYPE=CITE><style></style>
<font face="Arial"><font size=-1>Unless
these things are incredibly well crafted, I think you will find the tuning
anything but "standard", even within the prescribed tunings/tempraments.
I would doubt that in the final analysis there will be little to be gained
by investing a great deal of worry in the process. Do your homework,
tune your best, & let the gamelan sound where it may. Where/how
it is struck, mallets used, etc., will alter the pitch significantly from
its original, out-of-tune state, so I don't think I'd sweat it much.
Chock it up to creative dissonance. :-)</font></font> <font face="Arial"><font size=-1>Otto</font></font>
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style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<div style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----</div>
<div
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><b>From:</b><a href="mailto:staples.13@osu.edu" title="staples.13@osu.edu">Mitch
Staples</a></div>
<div style="FONT: 10pt arial"><b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:caut@ptg.org" title="caut@ptg.org">College
and University Technicians</a></div>
<div style="FONT: 10pt arial"><b>Sent:</b> Friday, January 24, 2003 10:04
AM</div>
<div style="FONT: 10pt arial"><b>Subject:</b> Gamelan Tunings</div>
<span class=073443817-24012003><font face="Tahoma"><font size=-1>In a couple
of weeks I will be tuning a piano that will be used in a concerto for piano
with Javanese Gamelan composed by Lou Harrison. I understand that
there are at least two standard tunings (I assume they mean temperaments)
for Javanese Gamelan, Slendro and Pelog. I was supposed to get instructions
for this special tuning but it looks like I'm going to have to wing it. </span><span
class=073443817-24012003></span><span class=073443817-24012003>Has
any one tuned for this piece? </span><span
class=073443817-24012003></span><span class=073443817-24012003>Any
suggestions?</span><span
class=073443817-24012003></span><span class=073443817-24012003>Mitch
Staples</font></font></span><span
class=073443817-24012003></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
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