Historical tuning

[Tom Myler]

Don ("Don") Mannino said this:

[huge snip]


> .....It's funny what you can get used to, you know? I have a really
> wonderful recording of the Charles Ives quarter tone pieces, for 2
> pianos tuned 1/4 tone apart. The first few times I listened to these
> pieces I cringed and laughed out loud at the sound of these two pianos
> playing together. But with time and more listening I have come to
> really love these pieces! I learned to not listen only to the
> dissonances, but to the music, the interplay between pianos, and
> musical affect of quarter-chromatic scales. They are really
> imaginative pieces, and when played well never fail to lift my
> spirits! That's what it's all about, isn't it?

Mister Mannino exposed me to this cd several years ago, and I would like to
add my three cents worth.  My reaction was slightly faster than Don's:  I
groaned,  cringed, and laughed for about the first minute;  then I
surrendered and just let the awful sounds wash over me, and within a few
minutes I loved it.   Bought the cd for myself, and every time I listen to
it I like it even more.

I find the interplay between the pianos particularly interesting, because
"the whole" becomes something different from, and greater than the sum of
the two parts.

I wonder if this music might have a particularly perverse appeal to Piano
Tuners.  In a way, it's the ultimate bad tuning, although taken to such an
extreme that it becomes something wholly other.

One caveat:  I would not recommend this as background music for your
answering machine message.






Not that anybody asked.


Tom Myler
"Well done" is better than "Well said"


PS:  John Piesik-  if you're lurking, please send me your E-mail address.