After a disappointing experience with a random tuner I picked out of Craigslist for my sister’s piano, I searched more carefully for someone to tune mine. I turned up the well-reviewed Clem Fortuna, who offered tunings in Equal Beating Victorian Temperament. What this means is that instead of Equal Temperament, the most commonly heard tuning of the many possible (about which more later), he could if I liked instead use a set of harmonies worked out only some 20 years ago.
I would, so he did, & my piano has a new personality. I don’t have the microtonal vocabulary to describe it, but the sound, esp. the resonance between nearby notes, is crisper & more colorful & richer in overtones. Or something.
Anyway, he mentioned a performance he was putting together, involving 3 pianos tuned to 3 different temperaments, at a new space over on Gratiot by Eastern Market.
So my sister & I find our way down to the 2:1 Gallery – it’s in what used to be the Butcher & Packer Supply Co. 3 grand pianos were up front, each tuned by the inestimable Mr. Fortuna. His collaborator was Thollem McDonas, who composed & performed music for the occasion, mysterious & emotional, with lots of droning, dense chords that brought out the unfamiliar resonances of each instrument. It was a strange & wonderful performance.
The old hardwood floors were kind of creaky, so people would walk around in slow motion exaggerated high steps, like they were afraid of breaking through ice. As if walking like that actually any quieter.
