Klarinet Archive - Posting 000436.txt from 2000/08

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Digital pianos
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 11:52:54 -0400

This is a reply to the [kl] Unloading..... and [kl] Perils of Equal
Temperment threads.

Bill Hausmann wrote,
>Digital pianos are stretch-tuned, too. On some of the
>better ones you can undo that and use mean-tone or
>several other variant tuning schemes.

That's true of my Yamaha Clavinova CLP-811, about four years old. The
temperament options were a big part of the reason I chose this instrument
about four years ago. At the time, it was one of the few digital pianos that
offered Baroque temperaments, although I believe these options have caught on
and are now fairly standard. The heart of a digital keyboard is a computer,
so I think of the various tuning systems as similar to word processing
software that offers different sizes and styles of fonts, with the output as
tones instead of visual patterns. Since I play obsolete instruments for fun
and zero profit, and often use the keyboard for Baroque and earlier music,
variable tuning was a major attraction. For tuning options, the 811 (now
somewhat obsolete, but I believe current models are similar) has a built-in
temperament selection as follows:

Equal (in the modern sense; the default setting).

Pure Major and Pure Minor. (These must be re-set each time the key is
changed; otherwise the results are entertainingly awful!)

Pythagorean (good fifths and fourths, bad thirds).

Mean Tone (the Renaissance system adjusted from Pythagorean for better
thirds, and still used by many Baroque composers, including Handel).

Werkmeister, a "well" temperament from the Baroque and early classical
period. (Quoting from the Clavinova manual: "to correct modulation
limitations and discrepancies between enharmonic sharps and flats
characteristic of mean-tone tuning.")

Kirnberger, another Baroque and early classical "well-tempered" system,
similar to Werkmeister.

In addition, the keyboard offers fine-tuning. The manual suggests it for
"when you need to adjust fine tuning when playing with other instruments."
That would be a very useful function for accompaniment of vintage
"high-pitch" clarinets, for instance. The screen shows the pitch in Hz and
you can wiggle it up or down for the keyboard as a whole, or you can adjust
individual notes. I never mess with individual notes, but I do re-tune the
overall pitch to A=442, A=444 or whatever's necessary to play along with CDs
or to record accompaniment so I can play along with myself on various wind
instruments, some of them old. I use mean-tone quite a lot for early music
on the harpsichord and (very limited) organ settings. (A lot of early
English organ music requires only one manual, because Cromwell's goon squad
destroyed most of the larger, fancier organs.)

The Clavinova can also transpose, by half-tones. For instance, if the music
were written in G, but a singer needed to take it down to F, I would go to
the transposing window and tell the Clavinova to lower its pitch by minus 2
(two semi-tones) and then I would simply play the music as written and the
Clavinova would do the transposing. That's an awfully lazy way to transpose
and I could get used to it awfully fast....

Tony Pay wrote,
>>Probably it depends on the details of how the sound is synthesised, but
>>isn't the waveform after the attack periodic (even though subject to
>>decay) and therefore certainly harmonic, on such a digital instrument?

Attack and decay are programmable on the Clavinova. To some extent,
particularly on the organ settings, the waveform is also programmable. I
don't want to get too far off topic here, but if anyone wants more details
about the other programmable functions, available stops, etc., please e-mail
me privately. (I have no connection with Yamaha except as a happy customer.)

Tony, you brought up some very interesting points about pitch perception. I
want to think about those, and anyhow, I've used up more than my 2 cents
worth for now....

Lelia

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