> I beg to differ about the stability of Fortepianos and the value > of tuning in historical temperaments. Stability in my experience > on these instruments is acheivable and the all the sublties of > unequal temperaments are well worth the effort. > ..... > Michael Wathen > > Absolutely right!...There is no excuse now for tuning instability with concert level fortepianos. A fine instrument should accept a fine tuning and keep it (unless abused). There are enough instruments available now to be able to compare their qualities and pick out the bad apples...and there are a lot of these. 5, 6 and 6.5 octave size makes a difference too, but it shouldn't...it's just harder to build a good 6.5 octave wood-framed piano than the smaller ones. Moving and environment changes should have no more influence than for harpsichords...probably less. An unstable fortepiano either has something wrong with it's construction/design (or restoration if antique) OR is being played anachronistically...i.e. too heavily OR both. BTW what were the four instruments you tuned (Philip) and which was the one that you found more stable? Antiques or copies? M. Bilson has (or will have soon) a Regier `Graf' of his own (Rod told me a year ago he was making one for Malcolm). It probably isn't a good argument to say tuning this instrument in e.t. affects an otherwise (expensive!) authentic performance...there are many factors anyway which make Regier `Grafs' unauthentic...these are really `in the style of' than `copies'...he modifies and uses modern materials in these instruments, and the design is not a Graf. Of the fortepianos at Wilfrid Laurier U. (Waterloo) the little Hubbard (Stein) kit-built instrument is remarkably stable. The Hood Streicher 6.5 has good and bad days, but generally is acceptable. This is tuned in a variety of different temperaments according to requirements. I believe Malcolm's e.t. is really a kind of ad hoc e.t. which is not too far from some tuning practices described for the early 19th C., so there may be some historical basis for that anyway. Stephen Birkett (Fortepianos) 308 Conservation Drive Waterloo, Ontario, Canada tel: 519-885-2228 fax: 519-763-4686
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