Dear List,
Skip Becker RPT who is hosting the Temperament Festival program at the
Convention in Providence asked me to write up a description of the temperament
I willbe presenting for the hand out book that will be provided.
I have placed a copy of it below for those who may be interested, especially
those who might not be able to attend.
If you are not interested in the use of Historical Temperaments and do not
enjoy reading anything about them, please simply delete this post.
Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison,Wisconsin
THE EQUAL-BEATING VICTORIAN TEMPERAMENT
Bill Bremmer RPT, Madison Wisconsin
In my town, Madison, Wisconsin, it is commonplace to hear pianos tuned
in the Historical Temperaments. This practice is due in large part to
the efforts of one of the Madison Chapter members, Timothy Farley RPT.
In the mid-1980's he became interested in Professor Owen Jorgensen RPT's
studies and teaching of these practices.
He encouraged other Chapter Members to try these temperaments and soon a
strong, unwavering commitment to their use began and persists today. I
am one of those converts and am proud to say that I have not tuned a
single piano except those used in the RPT Tuning Exams in Equal
Temperament (ET) since the late months of 1989.
One of the temperaments that found favor with our group was the
Rameau-Rousseau-Hall 18th Century Modified Meantone Temperament. A copy
of this temperament sequence is enclosed in this hand out (apologies for
the poor quality of the reproduction). It is from Professor Jorgensen's
second publication, The Equal-Beating Temperaments, A Handbook for
Tuning Harpsichords and Fortepianos.
Although this temperament as it is documented was found to have
beautiful color, there is some harshness that is deemed too severe to
make it a temperament which could be used universally (for any kind of
music). Some of its practitioners including myself found ways to
mitigate it so that it might be more universally acceptable.
I was able to come up with two versions of it which I dubbed the
Contemporary Modified Meantone I & II. In late 1992, I was asked to
tune the rehearsal hall piano for the Madison Opera's World Premier
production of the opera, Shining Brow, the story of a period of the life
of the famous architect who lived in our area, Frank Lloyd Wright. I was
also honored to be a member of that cast.
The music was contemporary in sound, in many keys and featured polyphony
as one of its many characteristics. I knew I needed a temperament which
was very close to Equal but would still retain distinct key color, a
Victorian type. Professor Jorgensen's new book had several such
examples but I didn't feel comfortable with any of them because there
was no Equal-Beating (EB) method for them. Without the EB intervals, I
felt I was "just guessing" at the precise character of each interval.
Therefore, I tried a third and more radical mitigation of our favorite
Modified Meantone Temperament. It was a very successful attempt.
Professor Jorgensen's book, Tuning, describes in one of its sections
(73) how it is perfectly permissible to alter a temperament "according
to one's own personal taste" and still be considered a Historical
Temperament (HT), as long as valid HT precedents are followed.
This "watered-down" Modified Meantone thus not only became "Victorian-
ized", but now fit the rules for a Well-Tempered (WT) Tuning as well. It
was known for a while as the Shining Brow Temperament but wanting to
avoid any copyright infringement, it is now referred to as simply, The
Equal-Beating Victorian Temperament (EBV).
It is compatible with virtually any music. A typical rendering of it
places no notes in the temperament octave range more than 4 cents flat
or sharp of theoretical ET. If played unison for unison with a piano or
other keyboard tuned in ET at Standard Pitch, one will hear only an
occasional "wave" in the unisons. It is therefore compatible also with
other fixed-pitch instruments and MIDI programs which are presumed to be
based on ET.
It would not "pass" the RPT Tuning Exam however but it is not far off.
It would typically get a "score" in the 70's in such an experiment. It
has 4 pure 5ths: CF, BbF, F#C# & AbDb. The AbEb is nearly pure, being
tempered less than an ET 5th. All of the other 5ths are tempered to a
degree greater than an ET 5th but by musical standards, still quite
mild.
In fact, there is not a single interval, 3rd or 5th which has exactly
the same size or beating as in ET. Some of the 3rds are slower than
ET 5ths and some are faster but none of them are so radically different
that a non-tuning musician can really sense that there is anything
"unusual" about the way the piano is tuned. In other words, the typical
"error" that might be found in a carelessly constructed temperament is
carefully channeled in this temperament to satisfy the HT requirement of
an alignment with the Cycle of 5ths. Andreas Werkmeister's Rules for
Well-Tempered Tuning are satisfied. A copy of these Rules is included
in this handout section.
The pervasive EB phenomenon gives the temperament and the piano a
remarkably harmonious quality. In the simple keys, at the top of the
cycle of 5ths, the EB has a certain "cancelling out" effect which makes
triads in these keys sound more "pure" than they actually are. In the
brighter, more "Pythagorean" side, the wide 3rds find themselves most
often expressed as 10ths and 17ths in typical Romantic era writing.
There is just enough width in these intervals to create a vibrant
"singing" tone that is very much diluted in ET. The pure 5ths in F# and
Db give these more strident keys a certain "clean" but incisive quality.
Finally, there are in this temperament in fact, 24 distinct Major and
minor tone colors. Not one Major or minor triad has the same size or
beating 3rd and 5th combination that occurs in ET. In playing through
the Cycle of 5ths, you will notice a fine gradation of color change with
each key you play in. And true to the character of the original Modified
Meantone Temperament from which it was developed, the sharp keys are
"favored" slightly over the flats e.g. the flat side of the cycle has
slightly faster beating 3rds than the sharp side.
It has become my answer to and my alternative to ET. I consider it my
"standard" temperament. While many of my customers know about the HT's
and that I practice them, I do not always reveal this fact nor do I
consider it my duty to do so. There are some PTG Members who believe this
to be unethical but I do not agree with that thinking at all. There is
nothing whatsoever in the PTG Bylaws with regards to ET or temperament of
any kind. Even the RPT Tuning Exam does not specify ET. ET has merely
been chosen by concensus. In my view, using ET arbitrarily poses at
least as much of an ethical dilemma as the use of an HT. After all, the
customer's satisfaction is what is most important, not tuning theories.
Providence,
July, 1998
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