Dear Lists: Virgil Smith and I wish to thank the Chicago Chapter of PTG for making this possible. The event was successful and educational for all of us. Also thanks is due to Kurt Saphir and his son Dennis who are fine technicians in their own right and who made their recital hall available to us and the three chapters who largely made up the audience. Virgil and I spent Mon the 14th preparing the two Kawai RX5 grands to be as much alike as possible, and at the same pitch. This early preparation allowed for a good measure of stability during the playing tests which followed the next day. On Tuesday the 15th, Virgil and I spent about 1 hr each touching up our tunings. Virgil tuned aurally, whereas I used the Sanderson AccuTuner and the Reyburn CyberTuner along with some aural unisons in the center section. At 1 PM an Artist-Teacher played a Brahms-like selection on each piano. Each in the audience placed an X under the Left, Right or Undecided columns of the score sheet depending on which piano they thought had the best tuning. After this, several other Musicians took turns playing Classical, Jazz, or Sacred selections and the pianos were scored in the same fashion. I was amazed at the quality of musicianship displayed by our own technicians. During the judging, no one knew who had tuned which piano; so, this was not a personality contest. We had predicted that the voting would be somewhere within a 40-60 split and would therefore not be decisive as to which method of tuning was the better. We would have indeed been surprised if there had been a big difference in the voting. Steve Brady tallied the votes while Virgil did a tuning demonstration before the audience showing his method of fine tuning. We both allowed ourselves 1.5 hrs apiece for the tuning demos which lasted from 2 to 5 PM. I began tuning downward from the lower treble strut, doing the unisons aurally as I went. After 7 notes down, I could use the already tuned 5th above to rapidly zero in on where the new note belonged and then I would refine it with the SAT and the RCT. I did more tuning and less talking (can you believe that?) than Virgil did which gave me a slight advantage in the net result. At 5 PM we all went to dinner. Virgil and I returned a little early and spent a few minutes each touching-up our unisons. At 7 PM Mrs Brady began the second round of playing. She played more than one selection, but they were much shorter selections. Some of you may not know that she is a Concert Pianist and is the wife of our PTJ Editor Steve Brady. Her playing was impeccable. For each selection she started first on a different piano so that there would be no advantage as to which piano was played first or last. Since everyone knew in advance which piano was tuned by Virgil, we asked the audience to try to be objective. I know sometimes I voted for Virgil's piano, and sometimes I voted for mine, and then sometimes I voted in the undecided column. We had many more participants in the evening. We heard Scarlatti, Schubert, Brahms, Beethoven (later) and several Jazz renditions (which weren't exactly duplicated on each piano) and some nice Hymn variations. After all the scoring and during the tallying, I presented the brand new Baldassin-Sanderson-Tremperament. Recently Fred Tremper found a simpler way to locate the B3 which is in the middle of the F to F octave. This involves two trial 5ths instead of 4 trial 4ths as was done previously. I have found greater accuracy with this while tuning aurally. Marshall Hawkins, our PTG President came up with the name - Baldassin Sanderson Tremperament. Fred very modestly said: "I only came up with one note." But I think it is a very critical note. Here is the order of tuning this temperament: A4 A3 A2 F3 F4 C#4 (recheck the two F's) C#3 F#3 (from C#4) E4 (from A3) B3 (balance between F#3 and E4) G3 D#4 A#3 (balanced between F3 and D#4) C4 (balanced between G3 and F4) (recheck F#3 and E4 seldom necessary) G#3 D4 D#3 E3 D3 B2 C3 A#2 F#4 G4 and G#4. This completes the two octave Tremperament. After the voting was tallied, it fell within a 45-55 percent split if one divides the undecided votes evenly. Virgil and I do not consider this a win for either, but a win for both. If we had both done better, it would have been 50-50. We are hoping that other more virile and younger technicians will pick up the gaunlet and continue this tradition so that we will all benefit more in the future. My personal feeling is that during the listening we were concerned more with the unisons than anything else. The slight difference in voicing, temperament or octaves may have influenced some, but with whatever the slight variations there were, the results were so close. Some have questioned the ability of an audience of technicians to judge such an event as this. You should have heard these technicians play. By the way, no one made any judgments based on interval tests. It's the Music. Dig it? That's where it's at. Jim Coleman, Sr.
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC