Beat Rates in music

[David Andersen]

>I think is generally aggreed upon the the more stretch in
>general there is, the more tense the general sound of the
>tuning is.
Could you elaborate on what you mean by "tense?"

 >Clearly a Moonlight Sonata played on a fine
>instrument tuned with a lot of stretch imployed based on a
>wide 6:3 temperament octave is going to sound different then
>the same piece played on the same instrument where the
>temperment and stretch are very compressed.
Please explain....."where the temperament and stretch are very 
compressed...."

 >Perhaps it is
>possible to colour a musical piece through the general
>tenseness of the tuning ?

I know it's possible to radically alter a player's perception of his or 
her own piano by doing a fine aural tuning.  

This opens up a whole subject that I'm fascinated to talk to other techs 
about who consider themselves fine aural tuners:  
to me, science, intuition, my musical ears, and 25 years of tuning mostly 
fabulous pianos have shown me that every piano can sound as good as it 
possibly can in equal temperament by allowing every fourth on the piano 
to beat in pretty much in the same slow, lazy way. It takes patience, and 
a very acute ear, and some practice, but using the fourths as my basic 
tuning check, rather then thirds and sixths, has allowed my tunings to be 
a LOT more precise and a lot more "musical" to my ear.
Using and refining this method will automatically stretch the octaves to 
where a 5-octave test will sound perfectly in tune, and all the overtones 
seem to "line up" and amplify the piano's resonance.
I have actually done an entire performance tuning, just to challenge 
myself, and not once used a 3rd or a 6th as a check, only 4ths, 5ths and 
octaves.  Once the slow beat of a fourth is made familiar to you, and 
you're willing to let the roll develop over several seconds, octave 
tuning becomes incredibly precise in the low bass and high treble.

As you've perhaps figured out, one of my heroes is Virgil Smith, modern 
father of "whole tone" or "natural" aural tuning.

I'd love to hear feedback about this; tuning is a huge love of mine; I 
give every one my all.

David Andersen 
Malibu, CA