source file: mills2.txt Date: Sun, 17 Nov 1996 11:48:55 -0800 Subject: Re: Post from Brian McLaren From: Gary Morrison <71670.2576@CompuServe.COM> > I can understand how this change enforced a 12-pitch-per-octave standard > keyboard, but pianos are hand-tuned, even now. The construction of a piano > does not have to be changed to accomodate most historical meantone, just, > or well-tempered tunings, as long as they don't stray radically from a > 12TET median. I believe that what Brian is refering to is that with non-ETs, you either need, or will want anyway, more steps per octave, and physical mechanisms of previous centuries put big limits on how many more steps per octave you can add beyond 12. However, when you force the circle of fifths to close at 12, there is less impetus to even wonder about other pitches, because it is a complete system in itself, and a useful one at that. Meantone temperaments are not closed at 12 steps per octave. Also, I'm told second-hand that when you tune the strings of a piano such that the tensions of adjacent keys vary much from one another, they tend to go out of tune quickly. That makes ETs easier to realize on piano even if you do stick with 12-tones/octave. Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 17 Nov 1996 20:48 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA15195; Sun, 17 Nov 1996 20:49:35 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA15101 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id LAA19423; Sun, 17 Nov 1996 11:49:33 -0800 Date: Sun, 17 Nov 1996 11:49:33 -0800 Message-Id: <961117194445_71670.2576_HHB70-7@CompuServe.COM> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu