Pianos and their sound

Greetings,
Dave writes;
>An added comment regarding the piano - in my opinion, the
>piano can sound really beautiful when it is tuned otherwise
>than to 12 TET and for many of us, until very recently we
>never heard a piano tuned to anything but 12 TET

Greetings,
Dave is right on the money here. The ET that pianos have been suffering for
the last 100 years is a compromise that we didn't realize was made, since it
was the only thing going. However, that is changing. I have a growing number
of customers that prefer the well tempered sound. With the advent of the
modern tuning computers, putting a piano in a different temperament is just as
easy as 12 ET. (aurally, 12 TET is the most difficult tuning there is, while
1/4 MT is child's play.)

>For my ears,
>putting the piano into a harmonious tuning suddenly turns
>the instrument into a HARMONIOUS instrument as well as
>a smooth sounding complex subtly impressionistic almost
>harmonious musical instrument - <snip>

Right on, right on, right on. Dave's recordings of his piano demonstrates
the harmonious nature he is talking about. The differences between ET and MT
are profound.

>a questioning
>of the satisfactoriness of 12 TET - the piano may have more
>life ahead than it has had up to the present time.

This is the crux of the "Temperament Revival".( it is more than a fin de
siecle convulsion!) Talking about tunings only raises some interest, but
hearing the sounds of a Steinway concert piano in earlier tunings really makes
converts out of many.
The classical piano world is just now waking up to the fact that the piano
was not intonated in the past as it is today. Inroads are being made, i.e. I
have been asked to give two classes in alternate temperaments for the national
convention of the Piano Technicians Guild this summer, and I intend to present
it as "Temperaments for the 21st Century". All of this hypergalactic, prime
wahzoo, nth based tuning is above the average tuners head, (Lattice anyone?),
but it is part of the expanding world of intonation and will also be a growing
field of interest to musicians (and hopefully composers).
Our well tempered Beethoven CD is slowing moving into university libraries,
and there are others on the way. At Vanderbilt, we have several pianos that
are now kept in the Victorian style of tuning, ( which is a slightly "bent"
ET, which gives tonal color to the keys without overtly tossing Schoenberg to
the wolves). I honestly think that 12 ET is going to stay, but it is going to
have to move over and make room for some of its more harmonious brethren.
(Now, if I can just get Garth Brooks to use it on the next CD, I'll have a
grappling hook on the freight train!)
Regards,
Ed Foote
Precision Piano Works
Nashville, Tn.

On Wed, 3 Mar 1999 19:41:50 EST, A440A@aol.com wrote:

>This is the crux of the "Temperament Revival".( it is more than a fin de
>siecle convulsion!) Talking about tunings only raises some interest, but
>hearing the sounds of a Steinway concert piano in earlier tunings really makes
>converts out of many.

I agree! I think that hearing Owen Jorgensen perform classical piano music
in the original tunings back in the early 80's was one of the events that
led to my interest in alternate tuning. If I had a real piano instead of a
Clavinova (as if I'd have room for one!), I'd have it tuned to a
well-tempered scale of some sort.

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