temperament

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

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> > I am hoping to find out what temperament might have been used by a Mr.
> > Joubert for tuning for Ignacy Jan Paderewski.
> >
> >
> >
> > Regards,
> > Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.M.T., R.P.T.
> >
> Hi Don,
>     What  year?   Didn't Paderweski use Steinway pianos on his tour?  If it
> could be found out what temperament Steinway used during that
> time...... ---ric
> 
> 
I'm quite sure that if you asked anyone from Steinway about this you would 
get one anwer and one answer onlt: ET

But you have to consider, as Ed and Ric said, the period.  ET was the idea, 
the conception at the time.  The actual Temperament Sequence or "Bearing 
Plan" as it is often called, is what caused the actual rendering to be 
unequal to a significant degree.  

Starting on the white keys and tempering the 4ths and 5ths a little more than 
they would be for ET produces slower 3rds at the top of the Cycle of 5ths.  
The 4ths and 5ths at the end of the sequence would have, by necessity, been 
tempered a little less, thus producing faster 3rds at the bottom of the Cycle 
of 5ths.  It is very likely that these temperaments were worked and tested so 
as not to be too extreme and thus be thought of and even called "equal".


However, the tests for equality that are known and used today were not known 
then and so there was very like to have been the mild and slight alignment 
with the Cycle of 5ths that many tuners of today are trying to replicate.  I 
personally believe that this same kind of practice persisted well into the 
20th Century and that is why virtually all 20th Century music that is tonal 
in nature can be expressed very well on a piano that is tuned in a mild, 
Cycle of 5ths aligned temperament.

It would, indeed be interesting to test this theory and my hypothesis would 
be that the Paderewski selections would sound more lively and expressive in a 
Victorian style temperament and have a drier, more neutral, homogenized sound 
in ET.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin

 

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