AW.: Re: re: thoughts on Haba's 2th quartet/Ives/Wyschnegradsky

In einer Nachricht vom 11/17/99 8:18:24 PM (MEZ) Mitteleurop�ische
Zeitschreibt caccola@net1plus.com:

<< Afmmjr@aol.com wrote:

> Problem with the Steinways: they can't be tuned down a full quartertone and
> remain steady. Certainly nothing lower is possible because its part of the
> design. >>

There's no problem with the instrument. The problem is with the Steinway's
rental policy in the New York area. I've heard Steinways retuned
beautifully: in fact, at Pomona College a pair of pre-war instruments were
used for the Ives quartertone pieces, and later, a single instrument was
tuned to the 11-limit just tuning (or, as close as you can come to Just with
a piano) for Leedy's extraordinary _Pastorale_ for chorus and piano four
hands. However, the most beautiful quartertone pair I've encountered was in
Krems, Austria with a pair of B�sendorfers. Adam Silverman probably remembers
those two as well...

Of course, I for one, am now curious about Krems. Have you considered Daniel
that the Pomona tunings were based on a "pure" quartertone tone between them,
but with an A higher than 440? It would seem quite possible. Holding pitch
otherwise on a Steinway is not in question.

An interesting historic note about an AFMM concert performance of the Ives "3
Quarter-Tone Pieces" is that we had a piano tuner who was convinced that a
particular piano would rise up about 10 cents from 2 P.M. until 9 P.M. which
is when it was to be heard.

It never rose. Dorothy Jonas' perfect pitch was enraged and she fought to go
on with the concert...she had reconciled herself to exact quartertones, but
this was somehing else. Instead of an 11-relationship we had, effectively, a
13-relationship. There was 60 cent difference between the two pianos, and
the effect...once liberated by previous expectations was tremendous.

There was a greater definition in the valley between the two pianos. The
harmonies between them were certainly as interesting, and upon reflection,
more interesting. More harmonious with the 13 implications.

There is an interesting story in the Memos about Ives coming upon an
out-of-tune piano that charmed so much he returned to it on another day to
recapure its intervallic pedigree, but alas, it was lost to him.

Johnny Reinhard
AFMM