Dear Norman
Please forgive delay - gmail decided to hide Pianotech notifications
for me in the naughty folder :-(
In my opinion there are only three historical temperaments that are
important and at the end of the day for general purpose use only one.
1/4 comma Meantone is really important for musicological research.
Playing the Mozart Sonatas in 1/4 comma is like wearing "sense of
humour" spectacles, showing up where Mozart decided to be amusing. A
pianist playing Chopin at the weekend said that she found it even
worked for Chopin although I'm not wholly comfortable about that.
There are some things for which it doesn't and Beethoven too. 1/6
comma Meantone might be the authentic tuning for Mozart but it's too
subtle for most people to hear and doesn't really do anything for the
piano, taking the pure 3rds away from purity.
Kellner and Kirnberger III both use 7 perfect fifths. I've seen
commentary about Kellner sounding like Werkmeister III but in my
opinion Werkmeister III is stronger and from my experience,
unpleasantly so. Tuned in the standard way, people will get differing
results from Kellner, some sweeter than others and some distasteful
upon the opening Db to F notes of the opening of the Raindrop Prelude.
When I used to tune in the standard way, I often had to do some
cheating on that tenor Db - C#3 - but try it and see how you fare.
My method of tuning reliably I want to be working with Steinways so
that they will roll it out on concert platforms with their hire fleet
of pianos. If I talk about it publicly people will just regard it as
an option brought to light by that oddball Englishman. The relevant
thing here is that what I'm doing puts the sound of the instrument on
steroids and improves its sound. Perhaps the Ravel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHwLSebpvE8 demonstrates the point as
well as suitability of the tuning for all repertoire.
Kirnberger III is useful for people who like strong curry and who want
to hear key shifts in the spotlight without the extreme of Meantone.
Kirnberger III is also great on fortepianos with a thin sound, and
straight strung 19th century instruments and particularly the 19th
century Broadwoods which were (nicely) tonally deficient
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuwylPz_GcgThe 1802 Stodart grand I normally tune in Kirnberger III
https://youtu.be/jouFU6ut6Cs and likewise a Broadwood Cottage Grand of
1869
At the Hammerwood Park concert at the weekend there was an interesting
conjunction of two Polonaises by Franz Xavier Mozart - one in F minor
and the next in D major. The question about tunings is whether they do
what they say they do on the tin. Written in 1810 perhaps
https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/courses/keys.html represents a helpful
guide to the 19th century. Certainly following F minor, the "key of
the grave" with D major really did reveal the trumpets and holiday
celebrations.https://youtu.be/KdO5LMOfw7s In the recording of the
Stodart, perhaps Mozart's fantasie in D minor really was melancholy
womanliness.
The fact that Chopin was less keen on composing after his old tuner
died might be a straw in the wind to indicate that his old tuner was
old-fashioned, and that Montal's shiny new one size fits all tuning
wasn't really inspirational. But so much of the good composers' music
right the way through to Ravel, Debussy and Fauré sounds so good in
unequal temperament and knowing that Erards were tuning unequally in
France suggests that perhaps there was common tuning for people to
have on their shiny pianos in their Drawing Rooms to show that they
could afford an expensive instrument on which to put the flowers and
later the photos, and play chopsticks upon, and other tunings for the
concert stage. I've come across people maintaining that unequal
temperament was used in Vienna until quite late and a recent
comprehensive textbook examines tuning in England and France but seems
to omit Vienna entirely. So much piano making emerged from Vienna that
it cannot be ignored.
From my long standing experiments and corpus of recordings, when heard
in this line of temperaments there seems to be a lot that's right
about the keys chosen and their audible effects leaning towards those
documented by Schubart.
Provided they can tame it, no-one tuning Kellner as their only tuning
on the modern piano will go far wrong. For my part, the tuning I do
based on Kellner makes equal temperament redundant.
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:
Sent: 10/21/2023 10:20:00 PM
From: Norman Brickman
Subject: RE: New unequal temperament recordings
David, thanks for sharing the recordings. A nice sounding set of performances. Can you give an estimate of how many historic temperaments a tuner would have to deal with in practice? You've previously mentioned the Killner and the Kimberger III temperaments but I imagine that you deal with a whole set of Well and Meantone and Just Intonation temperaments in your work using multiple pianos. The video with the Killner temperament tuning that you previously provided (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AwZDdBzi0M) discusses the "dissonant (musical) keys," as he calls them, and illustrates the need for multiple historic temperaments. Owen Jorgensen has over 50 temperaments in his book (what he calls "historical temperaments"), but there must be hundreds or thousands of them that were previously in use. As Owen wrote: "music sounds most effective when performed in the original temperaments."
Speaking of historic temperaments, have you any thoughts on digital pianos, particularly the newer hybrid pianos? Most of them sold have no strings. With one Yamaha N3X or one Kawai GX-2 Aures 2 for a performance, the pianist uses an app on a tablet (or phone) to select which concert acoustic piano sound to replicate/imitate, which historic temperament (or a custom temperament or ET) to use per piece being performed, which physical characteristics to select for touch and pedals, desired damper pedal sounds, and a whole lot more. If you missed David Reed of Kawai's talk on hybrid pianos at the July Convention (like I did!), there is also Scott Cole's article on them in the August, 2021, PTG Journal; and the user manual for the Kawai "PianoRemote" tablet control app can be found at https://www2.kawai.co.jp/emi-web/pianoremote-docs/en/.
Regards, Norman
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Norman Brickman
Potomac Piano Service
Potomac, Maryland
potomacpiano@verizon.net
https://potomacpiano.com
(301) 983.9321
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-17-2023 20:30
From: David Pinnegar
Subject: New unequal temperament recordings
Having had comments of appreciation for some former recordings the following might be of interest and are rather the ultimate test for the sort of tuning I'm doing to be universally useful.
Scriabin
Scriabin - Fantasie in B minor Op.28 in unequal temperament
| YouTube |
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| Scriabin - Fantasie in B minor Op.28 in unequal temperament |
| "Unequal temperament is unsuitable for Scriabin." Really? This recording demonstrates that whatever the academic arguments, Hammerwood based unequal temperament tuned by David Pinnegar improves the sound of the instrument and envelopes the performer in a soundscape which adds to performance. |
| View this on YouTube > |
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Whilst writing, the final chord of this piece for me rather stands out.
Ravel
RAVEL in Unequal Temperament - ONDINE - Gaspard de la Nuit
| YouTube |
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| RAVEL in Unequal Temperament - ONDINE - Gaspard de la Nuit |
| RAVEL in Unequal Temperament - ONDINE - Gaspard de la Nuit |
| View this on YouTube > |
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and in my opinion these recordings are an accurate representation of the instrument. They were achieved with a mix of a close mic at the edge of the instrument, a Blumlein stereo ribbon, with a pair of vintage ribbon mics a couple of metres away to get more of the room acoustic in the mix.
If you enjoy the Scriabin the full concert by this pianist is on
Haydn, Chopin, Scriabin, Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann piano unequal temperament
| YouTube |
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| Haydn, Chopin, Scriabin, Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann piano unequal temperament |
| Haydn, Chopin, Scriabin, Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann on piano in unequal temperament. 0:00:00 Introduction 0:04:56 F. J. Haydn (1732-1809) - Piano Sonata in C major, Hob.XVI: 50 - Allegro 0:11:06 Adagio in Meantone 0:17:35 Allegro molto 0:20:28 F. Chopin (1810-1849) - Barcarolle in F sharp major Op. 60 0:29:55 A. |
| View this on YouTube > |
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including an unscheduled break into Meantone for the Haydn slow movement.
If you enjoy the Ravel there's more from this pianist on a similar but later Bechstein
Musical evening at Frant Chopin and Liszt in unequal temperament
| YouTube |
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| Musical evening at Frant Chopin and Liszt in unequal temperament |
| A recital by Candlelight on a vintage Bechstein in Frant in unequal temperament |
| View this on YouTube > |
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although less well recorded and heard again -
Chopin & Liszt Unequal Temperament piano recital
| YouTube |
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| Chopin & Liszt Unequal Temperament piano recital |
| 00:00 Introduction 04:06 F. Chopin. 2 Notturni Op.9 No.1 10:08 2 Notturni Op.9 No.1 15:20 F. Liszt. Les jeux d'eau à la Villa d'Este 23:31 Introduction to Chopin Polonnaise 28:03 F. Chopin. Polacca op.26 no.2 37:47 Introduction to Liszt reworking of other composers 38:48 F. Liszt. Ständchen 45:34 Introduction to Chopin Mazurkas 47:56 F. |
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and
Chopin and Liszt - an informal tutorial - historic pianos and unequal temperament performance
| YouTube |
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| Chopin and Liszt - an informal tutorial - historic pianos and unequal temperament performance |
| An informal recital before dinner . . . The Master compares Liszt and Chopin and talks afterwards about nuances of performance. |
| View this on YouTube > |
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Sonnenlink Viennese dances & Brahms Hungarian dances and Dvorak Piano unequal temperament
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Sonnenlink Viennese dances & Brahms Hungarian dances and Dvorak Piano unequal temperament
| YouTube |
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| Sonnenlink Viennese dances & Brahms Hungarian dances and Dvorak Piano unequal temperament |
| An evening of music at the Sonnenlink Bio Hotel https://mani-sonnenlink.com/ at Pyrgos near Stoupa in the Mani. The piano is tuned to unequal temperament which brings music to life more and projects in the amphitheatre. |
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demonstrates Brahms with an underpowered Yamaha C3 satisfying an outside amphitheatre in Greece and
Equinox Kardamyli - Vintage 4 string Bluthner in unequal temperament - Bach & Grieg
| YouTube |
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| Equinox Kardamyli - Vintage 4 string Bluthner in unequal temperament - Bach & Grieg |
| A formerly neglected Bluthner now brings musical life and delights to the High Street in Kardamyli at Equinox with pianist and string players wanting to play and perform. Visitors are welcome to come in and practice, here with Bach and Grieg. For tuning elsewhere antespam@gmail.com is the tuner's email address. |
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a four string Bluthner - although not entirely stable after the shock of a pitch raise and
Steinway Model O in concert hall use with unequal temperament tuning
| YouTube |
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| Steinway Model O in concert hall use with unequal temperament tuning |
| Uploaded by latribe on 2023-09-27. |
| View this on YouTube > |
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a Steinway Model O performing in a situation where normally perhaps a larger instrument might have been expected.
Of course all of these tunings would fail PTG requirements. I refuse to tune Equal temperament.
It's becoming apparent that people are getting bored of ET and recently I was asked to travel to the middle of France to tune an upright Bechstein for a composer who wanted to explore differing interval sizes. He'd also heard about 432 but after my work, was convinced.
Musical A=440 432Hz is SPOOF!
| YouTube |
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| Musical A=440 432Hz is SPOOF! |
| The fashion for 432Hz is spoof. Tuning one note on a piano to 432 won't tune other frequencies to 864, 216, 108, 54 and 27 because inharmonicity makes the piano not behave in that way and none of the other 88 notes will relate to 432 either. |
| View this on YouTube > |
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Greetings from England and best wishes,
David P
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David Pinnegar BSc ARCS
Hammerwood Park, East Grinstead, Sussex, UK
+44 1342 850594
"High Definition" Tuning
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