Temperament & Tuning

Karen:

I'm desperately short of time, and cannot possibly answer your very interesting comment in a rush. So, please wait a little longer. The matter requires thought and attention and I cannot possibly answer you with the respect that your post deserves at this moment.

So, please, be a little patient with me.

 

Karen:

I finally found the time to think about your magnificent post. I must say I understand precious little of it - without the music samples it is rather difficult. But it seems that writing about it made you more aware.

All I can say is the Hardanger fiddle must be a marvelous instrument, and I understand some of the relationships you mention. With others I would have to go and consult acoustics tables.

What you say also applies, to a degree, to harpsichord playing. The problem with the harpsichord is that it takes rather long to tune; you see, there are 189 strings to tune!

But with a clavichord what you do with your fiddle can be more or less done. This is because with a clavichord you can actually raise the pitch of the note you are playing just by pressing more deeply (you can also have vibrato); so, given a piece, one could prepare the tuning so as to slightly modify (or not) the notes.

This works wonderfully with modal music, but is completely hopeless with Bach.

As a matter of fact, I am ashamed to say, although I first tried to tune my harpsichord to Werkmeister, I gave up and came back to equal temperament. As I am now studying Preludes and Fugues from the Well Tempered Clavier, it really is the easiest way. Of course, I could find certain tunings for groups of pieces. But that is horribly difficult and, what is more, often changing the tuning of a harpsichord is not very good for its health.

A friend of mine once said there were musical instrumenst and machines - the organ, the harpsichord, and the piano were machines; with the others you could make music. This is, to a certain extent correct where dynamics and pitch are concerned.

That is also why bowed strings are so fascinating: you always keep control on the note - with the harpsichord all you can do is press the key; after that you can keep down the fingers playing notes within the harmonical context if you want the instrument to ring (the overlegatto technique) - but that is it.

So reading what you wrote was very interesting, but it does remind one of the shortcomings of keyboard instruments.

Please write more because it makes fascinating reading and yes, if you can find the links and have the time to point me to them please do.

Again, thank you for your marvelous post.

 

Here most ZeroGain members can understand what temperament is about.