Small temperament octave

[Robert Scott]

In response to Howard Rosen's question:
>
> Colleagues,
> 
> Do you think that tuning a piano (any type) will sound a bit "sweeter"
> (narrower thirds) than it otherwise would, if one starts out with the
> narrowest temperament octave (2/1) rather than the often recommended 4/2+
> octave?

...Newton Hunt responded:

>Tried that once.  Tuned a Yamaha U-1 1 to 88 with no stretch
>using a borrowed SOT.  Had a friend/pianist play it.  She
>hated it and so did I.  I retuned it with normal stretch and
>it sounded very nice.  It can be done but it is not an
>exercise in beauty.

Newton,

This is not exactly what Mr. Rosen was asking about.  Tuning
a 2:1 single octave beatless is not the same thing as tuning with
no stretch.  A no-stretch tuning has each note tuned to exactly
double the frequency of the note one octave below it.  When you
tune 2:1 single octaves beatless you do get some stretch because
the second partial of the lower note is more than double the
fundamental.  Of course you get more stretch when you use the
4:2 partials (the 4th partial of the lower note and the 2nd partial
of the upper note).  I suspect that if the 2:1 octave is tuned beatless
then the double octaves will sound flat.

-Robert Scott
 Ypsilanti, Michigan