Pianotech

  • 1.  6th May tuning day seminar in UK - piano tone and perfomance

    Posted 02-15-2019 07:16
    Dear All

    6th May, Hammerwood Park, East Grinstead
    "The importance of the tuning for a better performance"

    Many have heard about, or suffered, tolerated and enthused about my advocacy of unequal temperament as a valid alternative to modern ET.

    Musicians are starting to come together having experienced the possibilities saying that it helps them in performance, in interpretation and their general enjoyment of the repertoire. Piano owners for whom I've tuned have enthused about what they regard to be an improvement to the experience of their instrument. Children being taught by piano teachers who have recommended me to tune are finding new enjoyment in practising.

    And yesterday I had the ultimate proof of why modern ET has led the piano in the wrong direction.

    A couple of years ago a friend asked me to tune their Kawai concert grand. The sound was hard and metallic, and was painful for the audience to tolerate. After tuning to Kellner, the instrument became smoother, harmonious and coherent, less harsh and more pleasantly resonant.

    In preparation for the 6th May event, Gary Branch https://www.resonusclassics.com/gary-branch came to visit me and I showed him a demonstration with Pianoteq on why the perfect 5th genre of unequal temperaments with 6 7 and 8 perfect fifths give improved piano tone. Using the Pianoteq simulations of Steinway D, Bechstein and most dramatically Kawai K2, in the bass the 9th harmonic is quite resonant. If you hold down without sounding the F below Tenor C, and possibly the octave below, and then strike treble Bb C D and E in equal temperament, the D will resonate quite strongly. If you go to Kellner or Kirnberger III the D doesn't resonate at all, or is insignificant in relation to the C and E. The metallic aspect to the tone of the Kawai disappears and it's an improvement to the modern Steinway and Bechstein tone too.

    So the tuning day on 6th May will gather together musicians, and music lovers for discussion and performance and it's hoped that tuners, technicians and manufacturers will come too to add to the discourse. Alastair Laurence from Broadwood has indicated interest and a possible discourse among manufacturers and all technically involved, together with performers, is capable of being valuable and productive.

    Please email me antespam@gmail.com or latrobe@antibes.co.uk if interested.

    Best wishes

    David P

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    David Pinnegar BSc ARCS
    Curator and House Tuner - Hammerwood Park, East Grinstead, Sussex UK
    antespam@gmail.com

    Call for papers - Seminar 6th May 2019 - "Restoring emotion to classical music through tuning."
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  • 2.  RE: 6th May tuning day seminar in UK - piano tone and perfomance

    Posted 02-16-2019 08:48
    Dear Piano Tuning Friends

    The upcoming tuning seminar on 6th May at Hammerwood has focussed minds and I'm most grateful to those who've challenged me searching for clues.

    Particular thanks goes to Fred Sturm who directed me to an Italian treatise on tuning of the 1880s recommending numbers of perfect 5ths and then challenged me about a report in the Paul Kildea book "Chopin's Piano" that Blondel, head of Erard, was recommending pianos to be tuned with 7 perfect fifths and 5 tempered fifths in the 20th century with producing the effect as "harmonious and possessed of a charm which makes plain the natural qualities of the instrument". I've finally found the source of this in 1927 - https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k123724v.pdf on page 678  . On a preliminary reading I see it as it as EA tempered, BE pure, BF# tempered, GbDb pure, DbAb tempered, AbEb pure, EbBb pure, BbF tempered, CF pure, CG tempered, GD pure, DA pure but in haste can easily have got the wrong end of the stick and haven't quite been able to work out the details of the checks. It would be of interest and great assistance if anyone could possibly do the tuning and publish the cent deviations for others to try.

    This puts the soundworld of Debussy and Ravel, as with performers playing on my tuning have suspected, fully into the resonances of unequal temperament.

    Perhaps we can trace a lineage. Werkmeister to Bach. Bach had his own ideas. https://stereosociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/BACHandTUNING-screen.pdf Kirnberger was not at liberty to disclose them but could do something similar and published his 7 perfect fifth 5 tempered fifth temperament in 1779 to Fokker. Chopin was based for some time in Vienna and was within the circle of Kalkbrenner, Liszt, Moscheles and others of highest echelon of the day. He was international and whilst in France communicating with Hamburg. In Mallorca he had with him Bach's 48 which he admired. In Mallorca he had a piano by Bauza. Local tuning would have been unequal from the Spanish traditions. This puts Chopin's 24 preludes firmly in the realm of unequal temperament. Whilst preferring Pleyel he also played Erard. Systems of tuning 7 perfect fifths and 5 tempered fifths were known and recommended by Erard even until the late 20s.

    The other day I tuned a Steinway A and my friends teased me "Congratulations! You've ruined a Steinway" with smiles on their faces "It sounds like a Pleyel".

    Having analysed the relationship of harmonics to scale in the course of tuning, I've come to the conclusion that one can either tody to the inharmoncity and tune the instrument to accord with the inharmonicities, or one can tune to enhance the purity of the harmonics. In the former case one's stretching octaves to make the inharmonic harmonics reinforce in "least entropy" tuning, leaning towards the concept of something like the gamalan in the extreme, or making the scale largely harmonic and tuning the bass strings to reinforce in-tune harmonics bringing a sweetness and sonority to which Blondel referred..

    The recent Trademark Protection attempt by Steinway is the sort of defensive operation that occurs when an organisation is under pressure, and friends have been telling me of layoffs at Steinway from 2009. We see a declining market. A declining interest in the music - it's not exciting enough, not a sound that gives pleasure.

    Reverting to the Erard or other more musical harmonic temperaments bring an improvement in tone, as Blondel indicated and wrote - so there is good commercial and artistic reason for tuning to be on the agenda for discourse.

    For this reason the seminar on tuning on 6th May forthcoming will be an opportunity to raise awareness of the issue and to the benefit of musical appreciation as well as commercial interest in the trade.

    Does anyone have the ear of any of the piano manufacturers Steinway, Bechstein, Bluthner, Kawai, Yamaha, Chris Maene, and any of the others to suggest that they might send someone relevant from technical and artistic perspectives to come along?

    Such a change in the industry would be a stimulus to enthusiasm, to research, to performers and to the recording industry making a good reason for new recordings in the medium of the tunings released from the straightjacket of ET.

    Best wishes

    David P


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    David Pinnegar, B.Sc., A.R.C.S.
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    +44 1342 850594



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  • 3.  RE: 6th May tuning day seminar in UK - piano tone and perfomance

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-18-2019 09:26
    Hi David,

    While I whole-heartedly support investigations into unequal temperaments, I see no need to characterize equal temperament negatively. After all, is it not true that one characteristic of modern life is that disparate, seemingly conflicting trends in the arts all happen at once? Unequal and equal temperaments all have a place, do they not?

    I note with interest that you have adopted some of the same language (smoother, harmonious, coherent) in your description of unequal temperaments that has also been used to describe modern equal temperaments. Perhaps we all need to redouble out efforts to accurately describe the characteristics of our preferred tunings.

    The reason I am writing is that I am unable to duplicate your Pianoteq demonstration. You write, "f you hold down without sounding the F below Tenor C, and possibly the octave below, and then strike treble Bb C D and E in equal temperament, the D will resonate quite strongly." If A-440 is A4, then you are holding down F2, and its 9th partial would be associated with G5. Did you mistype the treble notes involved?

    I find it most interesting that we both have looked to Pianoteq to aid our tuning investigations, you for unequal temperaments, and me for unusual, carefully controlled widths of equal temperaments.

    Kent Swafford



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  • 4.  RE: 6th May tuning day seminar in UK - piano tone and perfomance

    Posted 02-18-2019 10:24
    Hi Kent

    Thanks

    Yes - you're quite right. Senility strikes

    It would be the C that one holds down for three octaves above the Bb C D and E to be near to the 7th 8th 9th and 10th harmonics.

    And for the F, of course Eb F G and A

    This is the sort of test that shows up the harmonics which I did some time ago on my acoustic instrument
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz0B0SwKpww  
    and the facility of Pianoteq really enables us to hear the difference in tone and resonance so immediately and therefore with greater objectivity.

    I'm not wholly against equal temperament - like many though I'm against the sort of performance and ununderstanding that it's brought to modern performance. Perhaps if you can hear the harmonic responses to the scale notes to the harmonics of the piano in the different temperaments my sentiment might emerge into the light that tuning toadying to the inharmonic nature of the strings with stretched octaves will bring a harmonisation of the unharmonicity, but when we put scale notes onto the pure harmonics then we can make the inharmonic sounds irrelevant and bring a sweeter tone to the instrument with greater solidity. The variation between keys brings an excitement to modulation - which I believe to be the real Chromatic nature of much of Beethoven - Chromatism being primarily colour and being the rationality of the Chromatic Scale, one bringing colour. 


    When we encourage musicians to find the colour in the music we're getting performers to listen to the sound and for that sound to mean more, to communicate more to the audience, to bring emotional connexion beyond mere excitement, and for classical and modern piano music to find again therapeutic functions found and exploited in other genres which are thriving and leaving the piano and its repertoire fossilised.

    So I'm looking at an alternative to the modern vision of equal temperament which in its extreme takes the instrument in the direction of the gamalan rather than the romantic communicator, and finding an alternative which is not only viable but beneficial on a number of fronts.

    Of course Pianoteq applies temperament universally across the keyboard but if anyone would like to experiment with Kirnberger III or Kellner on an acoustic instrument, apply it strictly in the central three octaves with no stretch. Below that tune harmonically bringing the unison and fifth based harmonics to accord with the tenor and middle octave scale notes, and you'll find that some of the tierce harmonics line up too. Then in the top octaves in the octave above the Treble C octave, tune with stretch as appropriate. You'll find the pitch at the top comes down a bit as one's starting the stretch from higher up. The result can be particularly pleasing provided the bass scaling is good.

    I tuned a Steinway for a friend in the south of France who has a friend who's an ex-professor of piano performance and who runs an international piano competition. Upon hearing my tuning he became a fan and this resulted in my revisiting to tune a number of instruments last week. Two were specifically for pupils and the effect on the pupils was wonderful. They now _want_ to practice. As I was leaving the house of one, the young daughter was earnestly playing and played some jazzy modern work. Upon modulation the key contrast was really extraordinarily exciting and a joy to hear. She didn't need to play louder or faster to find excitement, just to modulate and it was as if the sun suddenly came through as fog disappeared. It's this sort of excitement that I'm advocating that will inspire music enthusiastically into the coming generations. A distinguished pianist will be giving a masterclass in the area with two pianos, one in equal temperament and the other in Kellner, and it will be interesting to hear the effect of the tuning for a piano competition.

    The reason why I advocate Kellner is that Vallotti is too mild and I don't notice it whilst Kellner is strong enough to be heard whilst still being subliminal. Kirnberger III can be more beautiful and this choice of instrument and temperament is really well investigated on Pianoteq before we tune acoustic instruments. On Pianoteq the Grotrian sounded best in Equal Temperament, unlike all the others, although the one acoustic Grotrian that I've tuned sounded extremely beautiful in Kellner 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7AoF3zvcaI was a Steinway in Kellner and to my ears I thought it beautiful. So perhaps my quest for an alternative tuning might start to make more sense against the grain of common wisdom and opinion.

    And the point is that it is suitable for the modern piano

    Incidentally at the same time as the Steinway Boston I tuned a Chickering which was particularly appreciated by its owners.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiX5Xjtb7-E was a nice medium size Yamaha which I've been maintaining for some years.

    Best wishes

    David P

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    David Pinnegar, B.Sc., A.R.C.S.
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    +44 1342 850594



    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: 6th May tuning day seminar in UK - piano tone and perfomance

    Posted 02-19-2019 11:39
    With upcoming coordination for 6th May and Fred Sturm keeping me on my toes with research I've been searching diverse directions and occasionally find something of wider interest. I don't know if anyone knows of it but https://fundamentals-of-piano-practice.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ is really rather interesting - and specifically https://fundamentals-of-piano-practice.readthedocs.io/en/latest/chapter2/index.html encouraging players to do their own tuning. Whilst inexperienced tuning can cause problems, such as we saw recently with the burred and twisted tuning pins thread, more people are being encouraged to DIY.

    What's particularly fascinating is the author's encouragement to try unequal temperaments - https://fundamentals-of-piano-practice.readthedocs.io/en/latest/chapter2/CH2.6.html

    "My suggestion is for a beginner to learn K-II first so that you can get started without too much difficulty, and then learn ET when you can tackle more difficult stuff. One drawback of this scheme is that you may like K-II so much over ET that you may never decide to learn ET. Once you get used to K-II, ET will sound a little lacking, or "muddy". "


    "We now see that picking a WT is not only a matter of solving the Pythagorean comma, but also of gaining key color to enhance music – in a way, we are creating something good from something bad. The price we pay is that composers must learn key color, but they have naturally done so in the past. It is certainly a joy to listen to music played in WT, but it is even more fascinating to play music in WT.   . . . Conclusions: We should get away from ET because of the joy of playing on WT; if we must pick one WT, it should be Young; otherwise, it is best to have a choice of WTs (as in electronic pianos); if you want to hear pure harmonies, try Kirnberger. The WTs will teach us key color which not only enhances the music, but also sharpens our sense of musicality." 

    So we see increasing enthusiasm for Well Temperament tuning, encouragement for more people to try it.

    And as a result if trade technicians and instrument manufacturers and concert promoters adopt a stick-in-the-mud attitude they'll lose out being behind the times. People will either DIY in the absence of an enlightened professional service or go to electronics to get their Well Temperament fix.

    So this is the purpose of 6th May to get players, technicians, manufacturers and simply musical enthusiasts to come together, to play, to hear, to experiment and discuss.

    I'd wish we could get one major manufacturer to be able to supply a pair of modern instruments, one for best ET and one for Kellner tuning for the day, but in the absence of this the Pianoteq software implementation is excellent and demonstrates well, and we'll be able to hear differences in the context of historical instruments at the house and probably a 1905 Broadwood baby grand tuned in Equal. We'll be hearing from at least two musicians familiar with Well Temperament playing experience on a daily basis and how this experience influences their playing in Equal Temperament. there'll be possibly another musician who'll be able to demonstrate "faking" the emotional effect on Equal Temperament having had experience playing in Unequal Temperament and from the aural heritage of her training. At least one musician will be flying in from Italy to participate and others may be coming from Paris and the South of France. It should be an inspiring convention of expertise.

    One PTG member in England in the south west has recommended one of his clients to come and it would be wonderful to welcome other tuners to come. One of the areas of resistance to UT has been perhaps uncertainty of its effects, how to exploit them and how to do it well. Because of the variety of temperaments available, misconceptions abound. The Hammerwood experience has demonstrated the universal applicability of a good temperament without detriment to music not written for it, and the day is capable of bringing certainty and confidence to many, and hopefully happy pianists and audiences as a result.

    Best wishes

    David P

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    David Pinnegar, B.Sc., A.R.C.S.
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    +44 1342 850594



    Original Message