Hi Bruce,

Not a complete answer set, but a couple of comments I have as a player, and maker, and tuner of harpsichords.

Re onstage tuning: I believe it is this. In most large concert halls the air is temperature and humidity controlled in the hall space, but not backstage. Often there are considerable temperature shifts from offstage to on. I would say practical experience accounts for that, a manifest problem.

As to cranking a peg that is already in tune: From cognitive science, sometimes the best way to tell if a note is really in tune is not just to listen for beats but to detune and tune back. That physical action seems to reinforce the tuning accuracy in the hearing/perception system. I am guilty of this exact same thing when setting a reference concert A, to make sure it is really spot on whatever pitch is chosen. Unnecessary certainly, but something people do. As for then passing the wrong pitch around, I suppose it depends on the concertmaster in question.

Re harmonic beats: Surely they do listen? When tuning a fifth pure, a violinist listens for the beats to stop. The average violin player may not talk in those terms, but they recognise the sound and 'feel' of a beatless fifth.

As for tuning perfect fifths and not to the harpsichord temperament, then I personally approve of that. There are others that do not. That is an additional Can of Worms that we can open later, after dinner. I don't believe the strings should adapt to the harpsichord temperament - it is a necessary compromise for the inflexible keyboard machine, not required for the instruments with continuously fine adjustable pitch. It's our weakness, our problem. Also, there is something attractive in the slight clash of tunings, and with the utterly different sound spectrums of harpsichords and strings, I have never found it offensive. I would rather hear the strings in tune (whatever that actually means...) than squashed into a keyboard temperament. Have you ever heard an orchestra play in equal temperament with a piano? I don't recall such.  But this is a long thread we could open up. I am sure our colleague Claudio could inform us as to what the historical treatises have to say about ensemble tuning.

Andrew

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