source file: m1453.txt
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 8:41 +0100 (BST)

Subject: Re: Relative importance of tuning accuracy for fifths and major thirds

From: gbreed@cix.compulink.co.uk (Graham Breed)

Dave Hill wrote:

>I've read that accuracy of tuning of the fifth is more critical than
accuracy
>of tuning of the major third for the overall harmoniousness etc. of the
music.

Yes, a lot of people say this, but I've never seen any evidence.  Really,
experiments should be done on musically naive subjects.  My brother, Neil,
fulfils this criterion, so I tried some meantones out on him played with
my AWE64's "Acoustic Grand Piano" voice.  I quickly played him a scale and
a couple of chords in each tuning -- a first impressions thing.

First, on 1/6-comma and 1/9-comma (should have been 12-equal, but I got
the number wrong), he said there wasn't much difference.  With a few
seconds more listening he concluded that 1/6 comma was better.

On Pythagorean tuning he had no comment.  However, he concluded very
quickly that 1/4-comma meantone sounded best.

So, the usual rules seem to apply -- all consonant intervals should be
treated equal.  However, the fact that he didn't immediately reject
Pythagorean tuning suggests there's more to it than that.  1/9 is far
greater than the difference between 1/6 and 1/9.  In fact, my microtonally
experienced ears concluded a long time ago that Pythagorean tuning works
unusually well with piano samples.  I assume this is because the pure
fifths dominate the sound.  It could also be why well temperaments, and
eventually equal temperament, became so well established on the piano.

I think, with 1/9-comma meantone, I blundered onto the dullest piano
tuning around.  No wonder my ears accepted it as 12-equal!

Dave, your postings on this subject are very reassuring.  I agree with
most of your conclusions, so perhaps I'm not mad after all.

How do you think the sound of digital pianos compare to that of an
acoustic?  I ask because these are the only instruments I've seen that
advertise their tuning capability, although nobody on this list has ever
mentioned using one.  To me, they sound great.  I don't like acoustic
pianos much, though, so I'm probably not the person to ask.

                     Graham Breed
     gbreed@cix.co.uk            www.cix.co.uk/~gbreed/