Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!hpfcso!mjs
From: mjs@hpfcso.HP.COM (Marc Sabatella)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: New tunings [was Re: Eliminating the octave]
Message-ID: <7180002@hpfcso.HP.COM>
Date: 9 Nov 89 16:02:54 GMT
References: <6335@merlin.usc.edu>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Lines: 36

>Another thing about tuning
>systems is that in concert performance of say, 18th and 19th century works that
>involve piano, strings, winds, the tuning is actually quite dynamic.

This much is definitely true.  If you are playing a piece in C major, a B
natural that occurs in a iii resolving to vi is played flatter than in a V
resolving to I - ie, unless you are playing piano (which can't easily alter
pitch on the fly), you try to play the leading tone sharply.  On stringed
instruments, this is accomplished simply by moving the finger up; on brass,
double reed, and flute it can be accomplished easily by embouchre changes; on
single reed instruments (which can easily be played flat with embouchre changes
but can't as easily be played sharp) alternate fingerings are often employed.

Actually, I wonder if this has anything to do why leading tones are so often
trilled in late baroque/early classical piano music - to aid in the perception
that the note is sharper than it actually is.

>Actually, most "equal" temperment tunings are actually off to some degree
>anyhow, if they are laid out by ear.  I have both seen and done some research
>showing that most piano tunings that attempt to be equal tempered are actually
>not quite so equal.  In fact, many piano or other keyboard instrument tuners
>frequently slant their tunings purposely in some way, for instance, making
>the b-f# fifth slightly rougher than the rest.

Whether this is true or not I can't say, but there must be some explanation of
the commonly perceived "fact" that some keys are "richer", "lighter",
"brighter", or "darker" than others.  The general tendency is to hear that
major keys get "richer" you add sharps to the key signature; minor keys get
"darker" as you add flats.  This definitely seems to be the case on the piano,
although how it is perceived on instruments that are tuned to different keys,
I can't say.  I personally have a much easier time discerning keys by "color"
on the piano than, say, in an orchestra, although the latter is easy if you
can single out one instrument and recognize, say, the quality of a clarinet's
open Bb, and deduce the key from there.

Marc Sabatella