Hi,
> Am 21.08.2016 um 04:28 schrieb Andrew Bernard:
> On the topic of the initial sharpness, this brings up a most interesting
> point. I myself and other harpsichord tuners that I know tune on the
> initial pluck, by repeatedly striking the notes in succession, rather than
> striking the note and listening for a long time.
Probably most of us would agree that tuning is done for making the instrument at hand sound to its best and above all to support the music to its best effect (whatever "best" may be). The tuning is in my view (or ear) usually best heard in longer sounding notes/chords, not in the clatter of faster notes.
In concerts I found not seldom that the quality of the longer final chords, especially the last one, determined how the tuning-wise educated part of the audience experienced the quality of the tuning. I have used that sometimes in designing specific temperaments for concert programs, when I knew the key of the last piece to be played (note: always ask about the key of encore. Better even: get the scores and check!).
Therefore the quality of the longer sounding notes is to me very important, while the short notes must sound good anyway. In this way I also check the quality of the octaves, in two and three octaves distance, too (and Bach certainly sometimes uses amazingly great distances between the parts in 2- or 3-part writing).
I strike each note, hold it for a maybe 2 seconds, sometimes shorter or longer, depending on how quickly I can discern partials and beats.
In the best case I find that two, three strikes are sufficient for adjusting the tuning, but usually it will be more. Some notes may be more reluctant, especially when the string has its own beats (due to variations in physical properties of the strings and stringing, I think).
Much depends also on my own condition and of course the overall noise level while tuning (the worst case was a touch-up of a harpsichord tuning during a concert break, accompanied by the uninhibited chatter of a happy wine-drinking audience and a sharply rising humidity: It worked, but the pleasure was decidedly on the audience side...).
> I have always found this technique produces a better sounding result.
I have heard this technique applied and in my view it doesn’t produce better results than my way of tuning.
Among others, the strike-fast-technique was advocated strongly in a workshop by a famous harpsichordist which I attended - his tuning during the workshop and in his concert was ok, but not perfect by any means.
Tunings for concerts may be slightly less sensitive, but for preparing recordings I find that listening for the longer notes is even more important.
The result of my approach can be heard in my tuning for the three Tomkins CDs played by Bernhard Klapprott. A few of the tracks of CD 1 can be heard on youTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5xykr-_wdk <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5xykr-_wdk>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs5ZWF3EdGw <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs5ZWF3EdGw>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otWJ6oIMX8I <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otWJ6oIMX8I>
Kind regards
Ibo
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Dr. Ibo Ortgies
(PhD, musicology), Researcher, Translator
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