TUNING digest 1132

----------
> From: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
> To: remoody@easnetsd.com
> Subject: TUNING digest 1132
> Date: Sunday, July 13, 1997 12:23 AM

On Sat, 12 Jul 1997, Charles Lucy wrote:
> All this chat about meantone tuning is very interesting, yet it
> would seem very difficult to affirm the details of which tunings
> were used on keyboard instruments, as the tuning is perishable.

Haven't you been listening? Daniel has several times mentioned the
fact
that many of the organs available to Mozart were in meantone. Organs
hold their tuning splendidly.

> Does anyone have access to physical fretted instruments from the
> periods in question, so that fret, nut and bridge distances may
> be measured?

Meanwhile, fretted instruments have used ET almost exclusively
throughout their history, because of the difficulty of frets needing
to
be in different places from one string to the next.

--pH http://library.wustl.edu/~manynote
<*>
O
/\ "Foul? What the hell for?"
-\-\-- o "Because you are chalking your cue with the 3-ball."


Without having the actual tuning instructions it might be hard to
tell how the organ was actually tuned.
True, organs are supposed to hold their tune for a long time, but I
don't think one that has not been tuned in 200 years would be a
reliable indication of how it was tuned then. Otherwise why would,
for instance, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco employ a full time
organ tuner? Of course other maintanance is required, but I have
heard tuning a large pipe organ is like painting the Golden Gate
Bridge. Once they finish, they start all over again.
If there are specific tuning instructions for early organs and
keyboard instruments, I am hoping they might get posted here, or at
least references to where they can be found.
The fret spacing is interesting, bits and pieces keep popping up.
Perhaps there is a book or other resource availble? Or specific
pointers to the archives?

Richard Moody piano tuner technician

"Sir, these frets are buzzing."
"Ma'am, it is your fingering. If you will allow me to demonstrate...


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Thanks to Manuel Op de Coul for the reference, but I believe that an
English original is available in addition to the German translation he
cites.

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On Mon, 14 Jul 1997, Daniel Wolf wrote:
> Thanks to Manuel Op de Coul for the reference, but I believe that an
> English original is available in addition to the German translation he
> cites.

Title: Lutes, viols, and temperaments / Mark Lindley.

Author: Lindley, Mark, 1937-

Published: Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York : Cambridge University
Press, 1984.
Description: vii, 134 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

Subjects: Musical temperament.
Lute--Tuning.
Viol--Tuning.

Notes: Includes index.
Bibliography: p. 123-127.

--pH http://library.wustl.edu/~manynote <*>
O
/\ "Foul? What the hell for?"
-\-\-- o "Because you are chalking your cue with the 3-ball."

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