From Dave Hill

Forwarded from Dave Hill (ascend11@aol.com) by John Chalmers

Subject: JI Piano vs. MT Piano

My piano is retuned to have three chains of just fifths, one
starting on Eb, one starting on G at a just major third above Eb, making
the fifth C to G flat by 21.5 cents, and the third chain of fifths starting
on B at a just major third above G. This tuning scheme could be
conceptualized as a modified
quarter comma MT tuning with the fifths from Eb to C made just and their
quarter comma temperaments all shifted onto the single C to G fifth, etc.

This scheme yields six just major triads - Eb, Bb, F and G, D, A,
and six
just minor triads - G, D, A and B, F sharp, C sharp. Although very
limited,
this is enough to permit a number of very simple tunes to be played with
reasonable arrangements, together with some renaissance hymns.

My piano tuner asked me to play some chords after he had completed
the
tuning job, which I did. To me at that point, the chords sounded quite
clean, not very much different than they had sounded in 1/4 MT. As usual,
the piano
sounded somewhat dry, despite the unisons having been left slightly detuned
by
irregular amounts around a cent. My piano tuner was quite enthusiastic
when
he heard the chords and said that THAT was the first tuning he had done for
me
which really sounded good to him.

I believe it is an important observation that he felt this way -
liked the
sound of the piano in JI but not so much in MT.

Although the overall average degree of tempering of the thirds and
fifths is much less in 1/4 MT than in EQT, I have become convinced that in
comparison
with just intonation, both EQT and 1/4 MT sound appreciably tempered, but
the
overall characters imparted to music in these two different temperaments as
a
result of the tempering are very different.

Thus some musicians long accustomed to EQT are likely to be so
accustomed to the effects of EQT that these sound completely natural to
them. To them, I
hypothesize, music on a piano in just intonation may sound different than
what
they are accustomed to hearing, but they will not find any new effects
which
add quote OFF unquote qualities to the music^Rs sound. They will
immediately
notice the greater flatness of the fifths in 1/4 MT than in EQT and find
that
to be disagreeable. In their aesthetic judgment, the fifths will be
weighted
much more heavily than the thirds.

Nevertheless, there will be many others who, notwithstanding the
greater
off-ness of the 1/4 MT fifths, will weight the greatly increased
harmoniousness of the thirds, together with the reduction in fast, high
frequency beating and the markedly increased overall resonance of the piano
more heavily than the moderately more perceptible off-ness of the fifths.

I've been exploring the sounds of the piano in JI, and listening to
earlier recordings made in 1/4 MT. I'm finding, not having expected it,
that in comparison with the piano in JI, the 1/4 MT music has a definite
quote
CHARACTER unquote imparted to it by the appreciable tempering of the
fifths.
My personal sense is that it is the tempering of the fifths, equally as
much
as the justness of the thirds which gives the 1/4 comma music a certain
solemn
character, a certain deliberate weightiness or seriousness. Also, while
after
having always heard the piano in EQT, the beating resulting from 1/4 MT
seemed
essentially unnoticeable, in contrast with JI, there is a somewhat
noticeable
waveriness and shimmering effect discernible in 1/4 MT. There is a
tendency
for this to be especially noticeable in very high pitch registers.

There seems to be an overall slightly dreamy flatness which isn't
noticeable when one hears nothing but 1/4 MT music, but which is noticeable
after one has been listening to JI piano music.

To me, the shimmering and slight dreamy quality of the 1/4 MT music
sometimes adds to the beauty of its sound, but perhaps not always.

I find that with JI tuning, there is a definite improvement over
1/4 MT in
the harmoniousness and beauty of minor chords and music having many minor
harmonies. Also, where the upper voice forms a fifth - melodic especially
-
at an important point, the overall sound seems more like what one would
expect, and to me better, with JI.

At this point, I'd say that the change and improvement in going
from EQT to 1/4 MT was greater for me than that in going from 1/4 MT to JI,
but that there are quite a few differences between 1/4 MT and JI - minor
harmonies, the
fifths, melodic steps such as exact major semitones, neither wide nor
narrow,
just minor thirds, full major whole tones - which one begins to notice
increasingly with time.

I haven't found the JI piano tuning to be quote STIFLINGLY unquote
restrictive, as textbooks usually state, but having only three adjacent
usable
keys (the bad C and E are problems) is sometimes frustrating.