At 07:56 PM 25-09-16, dc wrote:
>How hard is it for someone who's been tuning harpsichords for almost 
>40 years to tune an old (upright) Pleyel piano? I'm not worried 
>about the time it will probably take, at least the first time, but 
>about possible damage that inexperience could cause.

I have no idea about possible damage, but it might be quite hard! 
Unlike the harpsichord with its lighter strings which produce 
overtones close to the true harmonics, pianos with heavier strings 
suffer from inharmonicity. For that reason (and perhaps for others as 
well) a piano's "octaves" are stretched.

If tuning by ear, the beats will not be the same as when tuning a 
harpsichord. Most pianos are in equal temperament which is one of the 
more difficult temperaments to tune. If tuning with the aid of a 
meter, the better meters can cope with the stretching.

It is known that many of the earlier composers, such as Chopin, did 
not favour ET, and it might be interesting to hear their works on 
instruments tuned as they would have expected.

David 

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Note:  opinions  expressed on HPSCHD-L are those of the  individual con-
tributors and not necessarily  those of the list owners  nor of the Uni-
versity of Iowa.  For a brief  summary of list  commands, send mail to
[log in to unmask]  saying  HELP .
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::