Re: "well-tempered"?

[Seth Austen <klezmusic...>]

on 3/21/02 8:43 PM, BarMusProd (at) aol(dot)com at BarMusProd (at) aol(dot)com 
wrote:

> But fixed fretted instruments like the banjo, unless the frets are not placed
> properly, should be in equal temperament (in fact the presence of fretted
> instruments--although in the early days of lutes and viols, etc., the frets
> were adjustable--was one of the early impetuses for the acceptance of equal
> temperament. These fretted instruments could play in more keys and sound more
> or less in tune in all of them, unlike the harpsichord or organ, which was
> still tuned (in the earlier times) in an attempt to stay closer to just
> intonation, using "mean-tone temperaments" or a number of others as you
> mentioned. I don't understand why a modern fixed-fretted instrument like
> banjo or guitar should sound better or worse in one key or another, unless

Although the guitar, banjo and mandolin are fretted in equal temperament,
many players of these instruments, including myself, and probably Pete, from
what I gathered he said, tweak the tuning a bit to sound a little closer to
just, or at least further from equal.

An example of this is that in open G banjo tuning, all the strings are tuned
to a G chord, gDGBd. The guitar in standard tuning, EADGBE shares the same
tuning on its DGB strings, many players tune their banjos and guitars to
sound good in G. In doing this, fretted string players will tend to tune the
B string flat, bringing it closer to its just interval. However, if one
tunes the B flat enough (14 cents) to be just, when we fret at the third
fret of the string, the fifth of the chord, D, is noticibly flat. As you add
in other chords, such as E, then the B string is a fifth of the chord and a
little more tweaking is needed to reach a compromise that the individual
player can live with.

I am unable to use an electronic tuner to tune my fretted stringed
instruments. They sound horribly out of tune to my ears if I do. I tweak the
tuning for each key I'm playing in, and also use many open tunings without
thirds.

Here's an interesting concept for people to consider in the possible use of
just intonation in klezmer. Example, in D freygish, with D as the 1/1 tonic.
Eb, a 16/15 interval, is 11+ cents sharp to an equal tempered minor second.
F#, the 5/4 interval from D, is 14+ cents flat to an equal tempered major
third. Thus the interval between the minor second and major third is
approximately 275 cents instead of the 300 cents of that equal tempered
interval. And what a difference that 25 cents makes.

Just my 2 cents on the subject (pun most definitely intended, 2 cents being
the difference between the equal tempered and just fifth).

Seth
 
-- 
Seth Austen

http://www.sethausten.com
emails: seth (at) sethausten(dot)com
klezmusic (at) earthlink(dot)net


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