Dear List, I am glad to see that these issues are still of interest. I would like to relay some recent experiences and also comment on recent points made on the List. <<From what I remember Barbour did not believe even in 1934 that many tuners acheived ET. >> <> In my early years as a tuner, the 1070s I learned from a 4ths & 5ths temperament too. I was instructed that 3rds should have a very rapid beat but that was all, nothing about progressions and certainly nothing about the 4:5 ratio of contiguous 3rds. I believed that what I was tuning was ET too but later realized that what I really was tuning was a crude form of a Well-Temperament. In my understanding of what has been written about late 19th Century tuners, they believed in the concept of ET and were gravitating away from the very unequal kinds of temperaments such as 1/4 Comma Meantone and even the very unequal Well-Temperaments like Kirnburger's and Werkmeister's but still somehow retained an alignment with the Cycle of 5ths that produced true key color, defined as different sizes and speeds of the Rapidly Beating Intervals (RBI) (the 3rds, 6ths, 10ths & 17ths) that corresponded to the key signature. This alignment satisfied Werkmeister's Rules for Well-Temperament and that is why the late 19th Century temperaments more closely fit Werkmeister's idea for temperament than what we expect from ET today. They were tuning the different variations of what we call today the Victorian and Quasi-Equal Temperaments but may have at the same time thought of them and believed them to be "equal" temperament. I don't see how this is any less logical or less mistaken than the perception we hear today that a little variation in the 3rds is of no importance or consequence, it is still somehow "equal" regardless, as long as the intent and belief in ET is there, the results are accepted as ET. It is also no less logical than to believe that ET which by its very nature and definition is bereft of tonal distinction, still retains some kind of "color". For the past three weekends, I had the privilege of being the concert tuner for a chamber music series at the Frank Lloyd Wright estate in Spring Green, Wisconsin, about 40 miles West of Madison. Ever since I auditioned for and made the cast for a new Opera that was written about the famous architect, I have been inspired by this great man's work and ideals. The name of the estate is, "Taliesin", (pronounced "tally-EH-sin"), a Welsh language word which reportedly means, "Radiant Brow". It was what they called a Medieval poet who was known to be very wise and a clairvoyant. His face and forehead were said to have had a glow about them, I suppose much like we imagine a saint to have had a halo. Apparently, it was a Welsh tradition to give one's home a name. So when Frank Lloyd Wright built his beautiful home in the brow of a hill south of the village of Spring Green, he named it "Taliesin". The conceivers of the new opera dubbed it "Shining Brow", an Americanization of the usual translation, "Radiant Brow". As a member of the cast, I was required to study a lot about the man and his works. He was quite the individual and was very arrogant. He was once quoted in an interview as saying about his arrogance that he preffered "honest arrogance rather than phony humility". It was plainly obvious that he did not care what his critics thought of him. Many even considered him unethical and immoral. He rarely if ever apologized for anything that went wrong but continued to challenge himself to create architectural masterpieces that have had a profound and lasting impact worldwide. I have taken care of the pianos at that estate for many years, even before the opera was commissioned. When called upon to tune the piano(s) used for the rehearsals of the opera, I studied the score. It used many different keys for different moods and characters. It also occasionally used polyphony, that is, two unrelated keys at once. I decided not to go with what I knew to be conventional wisdom, ET, but to try the Victorian idea which is to be as close to ET as possible but still retain a distinct color for each and every key, in an alignment with the cycle of 5ths. Owen Jorgensen's Book, Tuning had not yet been published but he had given a preview of the Usual Broadwood Temperament and also the idea that one could use one's "own personal taste" to alter or modify any temperament to suit one's needs. I could not follow the instructions for the Victorian well though because there were only theoretical beat speeds given, all "irrational" numbers and no compensation for inharmonicity. Somehow, I felt divinely inspired and came up with an idea that has worked for me ever since. I used the concept of Equal-Beating to greatly mitigate a Modified Meantone Temperament from Owen's second publication, the "Handbook". The people at Taliesin and the Opera conductor and music director were always and continue to be supportive of my goals. It fit their philosophy and it gave some individuality and diversity, two things which Wright thought were important, to their work and environment. The piano used in the Hillside Theater at Taliesin is a 100 year old Bechstein 9 foot grand which has all of the original strings but which has had the action replaced with new Renner parts and hammers. The strings have been cleaned. During this chamber music series, the theme of which was "The Killer Bees" (all of the composers names begin with the letter, "B"), I once again used the Equal Beating Victorian Temperament (EBVT). It served J. S. Bach, C. P. E. Bach, Beethoven and Brahms well, as you might expect but most notably, it served more modern music such as the Irish Folk song, "Down in the Sally Gardens" for flute and piano played in six flats. There was no "sour" sound, only a vibrant "humming" sound that was very pleasing to the ear when that beautiful melody was played on the flute accompanied by the piano. It also served the music of Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein and Bela Bartok but my favorite was a quintet by Ernest Bloch (1880-1859), a multi-tonal, modern, extended harmony piece which ended on a gently decaying C major chord. Ironically, the Beethoven Trio in C minor also ended on virtually the same chord, leaving behind the inevitable sad sound of the minor key to the pleasant and quiet stillness of C Major. The EBVT contains several instances of triads which contain equally beating RBI's. These have a "canceling out" effect which make extended chords played in those keys sound much purer than they really are. This effect is not possible in a true ET. The conservative tempering at the top of the Cycle of 5ths also allows me to have RBI's at the bottom of the Cycle of 5ths: Ab, Db, F#, B (which sound too harsh for many people in most HT's) that are well below the threshold of tolerance for today's listeners, no more than 18 or 19 cents wide at the most. (Not quite as "sharp" as the ear can well bear). The powerful and extensive Brahms Quintet in F minor sounded lush with the different colors. There were times when you could hear the seemingly still chords and others when you heard full and rich vibrancy but never once could you hear anything that any listener of today, even a piano technician, would find harsh, objectionable or out of tune sounding. But the last performance had what I considered to be the most interesting and intriguing, and it had nothing to do with the piano, it was the guitar. Consider these statements made recently on the List: <<But the point is that lutes and fretted instruments being tuned in ET means that people were hearing ET in music in 1637. Actually a case can be made that the best sounding lutes, guitars, etc can only have their frets arranged in equal proportions. The concept of ET or if you will mathematical predictions of ET have existed at least since Mersenne. As to when ET was heard on strung keyboards, well Barbour was still skeptical of tuners in 1934. Mersenne tries to give instructions for tuning ET but in the end says it is the "secret of the masters" It is not even possible to draw conclusions from Mersenne that keyboards were actually tuned in ET, but he sure gives indications that it was a goal, that it was something music could look forward to. (Marin Mersenne _Harmonie Universelle_ trans Roger E. Chapman, pub. Martinus Nijhoff / The Hague, 1957.) > > >The problem it seems is that ET was a goal, but no one knew how to tune > >it. >> Several months ago, I wrote that I had once figured out a way to tune the guitar in what I called a Well Tempered Tuning. I immediately got responses that said the figures I gave "wouldn't work". This being by an accomplished guitarist who did not even bother to try what I had said but who "proved" his statement by showing that the unisons would be "out of tune". Another guitarist tried the figures and said that his guitar had sounded better just being plain out of tune than the way I had specified. Well, I knew what the guitar sounded like in the performances of "The Man of La Mancha" in which the tuning was used and I also have seen the expression of delight many times when I have tuned the guitar for someone. However, I can only strum basic chords, I am not an accomplished guitarist, so even I have had my doubts until last night when I heard a true master of the instrument perform on the guitar, in a Well Tempered Tuning. I did not know this man, had never heard of him before and did not speak to him either before nor after the performance. But what I did notice was that before each and every selection that he played in, in took plenty of time to very carefully tune his instrument. When he was supposed to make some comments but had forgotten to do so about the "Fandango" by Luigi Boccherini, he apologized saying that he had been concentrating on the tuning of his guitar for this piece. I could hear that the tempering that he put in his 4ths was much more than ET would require and that made his 3rds much slower. He had many different ways to pluck the strings for different sound qualities and he knew all of the "geography" of the fret board. When he played unisons, there was a distinct beat in them. But this beating seemed to have the right musical quality to it. I also heard other intervals that were much more tempered than what you usually hear. Most professional guitarists these days have an electronic tuner based on ET. They tune the string until the tuner indicates that it is right and they accept that as being correct. Some will tweak that tuning a little bit but most play it just that way. This man was different and tuned just the way he wanted each time and very carefully. I think it is an example of someone not blindly accepting conventional wisdom and actually going against it only to end up creating something far more beautiful because of it. Some people who try to tune the guitar mistakenly tune all of its 4ths pure or they fret unisons and tune them pure. This gives the guitar a "Pythagorean Tuning". The open intervals are pure which, of course, sounds pleasing to the ear but the 3rds and 6ths are thus very harshly wide, 22 cents. So even if fret boards have been evenly divided for centuries, does it necessarily follow that *everyone* or even most people *always* tuned these fretted instruments in a strict ET? I really don't think so. I would require proof to be convinced. So, for anyone interested, here is my "honestly arrogant" set of figures for tuning a guitar so that it will sound more beautiful than the usual way in ET: All values are read on Octave 4: E2: -4.0 A2: 0.0 D3: 2.0 G3: 4.0 B3: -2.0 E4: 0.0 You can also do a "Victorianized" version of it which is milder: E2: -2.0 A2: 0.0 D3: 1.0 G3: 2.0 B3: -1.0 E4: 0.0 Don't ask any questions or say it won't work, just do it! (and enjoy the beautiful chords). Yours truly, Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin
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