In a message dated 6/17/98 1:48:45 AM Central Daylight Time, fiol@bway.net writes: << Your comments about Cajun music are right on the money. I very much like your temperament ideas. I've analyzed some historical Cajun recordings and have found the intervals on the accordions to resemble quarter comma meantone in some cases and 31 equal in others. Overall, quarter comma seems to be god for accordion in the simpler keys, I think. Any thoughts? >> Thanks LOADS for your reply. I am just starting my investigation. From what I know now, the sounds of the accordians reeds are so powerfully bright that when the 3rds of the tonic and dominant are played, they are tuned pure or quasi-(nearly) pure. The subdominant sometimes has the root of that chord raised (F on a C accordian) to make a pure 3rd with the 3rd of thhat chord (A on the C accordian). There is no conflict between the F & C because C is a "push" note and F is a "pull" note, the two cannot be played together. The accordian maker however told me that if he sharpens the F that much, some other instrumentalists find a conflict with it when trying to play a unison with it. So the F and A are often left in as an ET or quasi ET 3rd. This 3rd sounds much harsher than it does on the piano. It sounds much wider, like a Pythagorean 3rd (in excess of 21.5 cents wide) even though it is not. The pressure of the bellows is another complicating factor. We do not know how precisely some makers tune, how stable the tunings are or if some makers do things differently than others. I brought my accordian to a Chapter meeting and the other Members marveled at the beautiful craftsmanship. On the subject of tuning, one member remarked, "I think they are SUPPOSED to be tuned 'out-of-tune' or they won't sound right". I guess, the way one expects to hear a calliope. Clearly, there is no requirement to create intervals the way they are rendered on a 12-tone, chromatic keyboard, whether your decision is for ET in that instance or not. I am interested in creating the most interesting sound and I would like the accordian to emulate the pure or even widened 5ths that I hear traditional Cajun singers consistently sing with. The 1/4 meantone that you mentioned has the pure 3rds, yes, but it also has very noticeably tempered 5ths. It is possible that some of these accordians have been tuned this way but it is clearly not neccessary to temper any 5ths (narrowly)by any amount. If they are tuned with pure 3rd and 5th, they will ressemble the de Caus Just Intonation Tuning where no tempering is done. My idea is to temper the 5ths for effect, to the wide side by about 1 beat per second and to temper the 3rds of the tonic and dominant by the same amount. I would compromise on the subdominant by raising it by 4 cents, and lowering it's 3rd by 4 cents (from theoretical ET pitch), creating a gently beating 3rd and having neither note be too far off from theoretical ET, which would take care of intonation problems. This would create a "big" chord that should sound very pleasing to the ear and carry a melody well. Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin
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