Valotti Well Temperament for Guitar and "Victorianized" Valotti for Guitar by Bill Bremmer RPT (forwarded by Paul Bailey RPT San Mateo, CA) ======================================= Here are the SAT readings for a Vallotti on the guitar:
All notes are read on octave 4:
E2: -4.0 A2: 0.0 D3: 2.0 G3: 4.0 B3: -2.0 E4: 0.0
The discrepency between E2 (-4.0) and E4 (0.0) provides for adequate octave stretch. There is inharmonicity in guitar strings just as there is in a piano's. The -4.0 between A2 and E4 is "adjusted" for inharmonicity to -2.0. The guitar's natural inharmonicity makes this interval beat adequately. (Inharmonicity naturally causes 5ths & 12ths to beat more slowly and 4ths to beat more rapidly than their theoretical rate).
Here is the "Victorianized Vallotti":
E2: -2.0 A2: 0.0 D3: 1.0 G3: 2.0 B3: -1.0 E4: 0.0
Either one of these can be approximately duplicated aurally by simply putting more of a beat (than in ET) in the 4ths and the 12th that occur on the fingerboard which will considerably slow down the beating in the G3-B3 3rd and the D3-B3 6th. Making these 2 rapidly beating intervals beat "gently and pleasantly" to the ear then evening out the slow-beating intervals is the aural goal while keeping A2 in a good unison with the pitch source. The frets, which are immovable, will cause the harmony to align itself with the cycle of 5ths and thus the expected "key color" of a Well-Tempered Tuning will occur. The above figures for a "guitar Vallotti" were used in a production of "The Man of La Mancha" with Madison Opera in 1993. A very clear distinction could be heard from the guitar in the serene sound of A minor and the very dark and disturbing sound of both Bb minor and Ab minor which were written for the guitar in the score. Sincerely, Bill Bremmer RPT
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