Re: [Harp-L] Re: Temperments of other instruments

["Bob Laughlin" <rlaughlin@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My understanding of equal temperament (ET) is that it is equivalent to
"stretched". The process of "stretching" the interval between notes, making
it less than perfect (Just Intonation), as a compromise for the sake of
having all keys sounding relatively unofficious to the normal ear, is called
"tempering".

Tempering may be thought of, as an example, like taking two people who are
each "perfect" in their own sense, and teaching them to "get along" by way
of compromise, lest they remain incompatible with each other. Any married
couples out there listening?

It causes one to have to learn to "stretch" one's capacity for tolerance of
those who they consider less than ideal.

Though the strings of a piano have no particular "personality" (or do
they?), they also need to be tuned in such a way that their individual tone
is "stretched" or tempered in relation to the other strings, in a compromise
tuning (equal temperament), for the good of all, all the strings, and all
the listeners. If each pair of strings is tuned, by comparison, so as to
produce a perfect interval, particular keys will suffer, as ALL the
intervals cannot, at the same time, be tuned in this way.

Piano strings are imperfect resonators, as they have not only length, but
also thickness, causing imperfection in the creation of tone. This is the
crux of the problem, therefore, the need for compromise tunings such as ET.
Guitars are similar, in that they can never be "perfectly" in tune, so the
artist needs to learn to "work with it" to some degree. This is more evident
in the thicker stringed instruments than, for example, an electric guitar,
with thin strings.

BL
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Slim Heilpern" <slim@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <IcemanLE@xxxxxxx>
Cc: "harp-l" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2007 1:28 PM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Re: Temperments of other instruments


> >
> > Currently, pianos are tuned strictly 12 ET unless requested otherwise -
the
> > only ones that request otherwise are groups interested in recreating
authentic
> >  period music played on authentic period instruments or the experimental
> > music/sound pioneers.
> ...
> >
> > The Iceman
> >
> I may be mistaken and I'm certainly no expert, but I don't think that's
> quite true. Pianos of different sizes (with different string lengths)
> have different amounts of "stretched" tuning applied (where the notes in
> higher octaves are sharper than the same notes in lower ocatves). The
> reason has something to do with inharmonic overtones related to string
> length. My understanding is that piano tuning is usually based on ET,
> but is not "strictly" ET (since it is stretched). I recently read an
> article about a synth that replicates a piano sound using physical
> modeling and one if it's features was that, contrary to a real world
> piano, it could model gigantic strings that removed the need for
> stretched tuning.
>
> Harmonica content: I'm trying to imagine what a physical-modeled bass
> harmonica would sound like with gigantic reeds... ;-)
>
> - Slim.
>
> www.SlideManSlim.com
>
>
>
> >
>
>
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