Thanks to Lewis Jones, I found on https://ethos.bl.uk/ a thesis with the title “Harpsichord: its timbre, its tuning process, and their interrelations”, by Pedro Bento, a 2013 thesis.
The direct link to download the thesis is: Harpsichord : its timbre, its tuning process, and their interrelations.
May be of interest to the temperament-versed people here.
Dom
Hello Domenico.
I used the link "Harpsichord: its timbre……” and clicked on the “Show full item record”, but it did not produce the full record. Does someone have the complete version?
I could get this through our Institute library (inter-University loans), but not until Monday and then a few more days for a repsonse.
Wolfgang
Hi Wolfgang. I attach a screenshot. If what you see is similar to the screenshot, just click on “Bento2013” and it will download. I have just done it and it works fine. Just go to Harpsichord : its timbre, its tuning process, and their interrelations and click on Bento2013.pdf (not on “show full item record”).
If it doesn’t work, would you please give me your email address (via private message in order to not expose your mail to the bots) and i’ll send you the thesis by email.
It’s more than 400 pages, but only about 10 Mb.
Best!
| wgk Wolfgang Knauss
September 23 |
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I used the link "Harpsichord: its timbre……” and clicked on the “Show full item record”, but it did not produce the full record. Does someone have the complete version?
Although most UK universities subscribe to the British Library EThOS database, a significant few do not; and some universities have joined or left the scheme over the years. Hence, while O’Brien (1983) is available via EThOS, Bento (2013), from the same university(!) is not.
The EThOS catalogue entry for Bento says ‘Full text unavailable from EThOS. Please try the link below.’ The link below, http://hdl.handle.net/1842/9773,
is to the Edinburgh University repository, from which Bento’s text can be downloaded, although some associated data files cannot.
Bento’s abstract, so readers can decide whether to pursue this, is below:
At the Edinburgh University Collection of Historical Instruments (EUCHMI) there are two virginals where the strings are plucked extremely close to 1/4 of their length over a substantial part of the compass. Principles of Acoustics dictate that in such cases the fourth partial of the resulting sound is unlikely to be produced with any appreciable magnitude. Similar situations affecting different partials also occur when the plucking point is located at other fractional parts of the string length, such as 1/3 or 1/5. A database of plucking points, based on museum catalogues, was created and analysed, so that pitch regions are identified where such phenomena are likely to occur for different categories of instruments. The main cue used in harpsichord tuning is related to beat phenomena produced by partials of two simultaneously played notes, whenever there is a small difference between their frequencies. Partial four being relevant for major thirds and perfect fourths, these intervals may result less accurate, or less reliably tuned, in instruments like the above virginals. Historical sources were surveyed for expressions which describe the cues that tuners were supposed to use in identifying the ideal of an interval. Although expressions such as Schwebungen are mostly related with beats, broader meanings are discussed. Hints of the use of alternative, not beat-related cues, are identified. A series of practical tuning experiments was performed in which selected intervals were tuned, the accuracy of the tuning process being assessed from recordings, which were subjected to spectral analysis. Only cues that could be related to historical sources were used. The effects of factors such as pitch, pitch region, instrument, interval type, and particularly the potential absence of relevant partials were investigated, statistical methods playing a substantial role in the research. A logbook was created, where the experimenter detailed the cues used for each tuned interval in one of the experiments. The recorded information provided some insight into a number of strategies a tuner may use for coping with difficulties in cases of absent or weak partials. The impact of inharmonicity on the exact size of just intervals was also examined, both on theoretical grounds and based on data from the experiments. A number of case studies were included, where a comparison was made between missing partial notes predicted from plucking points and the degree of absence of those partials in the actual spectra for some historical instruments.
Thank you very much, Domenico. That worked fine. Wolfgang
Thank you Lewis, for the detailed information of why I did not have immediate downloading success. Domenico’s help was straight forward. Wolfgang
Has anyone tried to make sense of this 439 page analysis of (I think) a total of two instruments? As I’ve seen elsewhere in tuning texts, the author has become deeply involved and appears to have invented his own language to catalogue his discoveries. “Normality of Biquadratic Root Transformation of minUDif and minUInt”
There may be something of real value there, but I don’t have the life expectancy to make sense of it (or at least I’d rather use my remaining time to play music.)
ars longa, vita brevis.
Ed, have you any bibliographical details or the author’s name, or a link to this text? They didn’t appear in your post and a quick internet search for the title didn’t bring anything up for me.
It’ in my first post of this thread. I quote it here:
Just click on Bento2013.pdf.
Maybe better not to! 
| domenico.statuto Domenico Statuto
September 27 |
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The direct link to download the thesis is: Harpsichord : its timbre, its tuning process, and their interrelations .
Just click on Bento2013.pdf.
Whatever the merits (I think they are considerable) and, perhaps, shortcomings of Pedro Bento’s 2013 thesis, the author does not deserve to be disparaged, as has happened three times here in the past day, by commentators who have simply not bothered to read his work carefully – or at all. The suggestion that just two instruments are analysed is simply incorrect, and thus misleading.
I did read it in detail. My background is in maths, and I thought very poorly of the study. But you are right to suggest I should keep such comments to myself. I consider myself rightly upbraided.
Domenico-
Sorry if my comments came across as harsh. Frankly, I wish someone would read the paper and summarize findings that may be helpful. I am not capable of doing that.
(What I read did help me make a plucking point correction in a weak sounding high note.)
Brian Capleton wrote extensively on oscillographic studies of the behavior of piano strings (Theory and Practice of Piano Tuning) which demonstrates that the real rising and falling of piano tones (beats) is much more irregular than what mathematical models predict. Beats may speed up or slow down over a few seconds, appear or disappear. And sometimes individual strings may create “solo” beats.
Ultimately tuners must make decisions based on their particular approaches to listening. It is not a perfectly objective craft, even less so with aging instruments and strings. Knowing this may help novice tuners recognize when they are dealing with peculiarities of their instruments that make “perfect” tuning difficult or impossible.
Ed, you welcome! I am not capable of doing that, either, nor, frankly, wishing to do that. I am just not interested in temperaments excepted to choose a good temperament for Bach and Scarlatti and learn how to do it by ear (experimenting now with Barnes’ Bach as per Claudio’s suggestion).
As for Bento’s paper, I don’t think anything of it as I didn’t read and don’t want to. I understand some don’t appreciate it.
The Barnes temperament has 11 of its notes in the same places as Vallotti (the modern approximation of Vallotti with Pythagorean comma), and then the B is slightly higher so it is pure from E (instead of being pure from F#).
Bradley Lehman
Thanks Brad, I know that, but then my problem is to set up Vallotti with its sixth-comma fifths…
Problem is, when tuning by ear and not having pure interval to rely on, to learn to recognize the quality of the intervals, without counting beats (which by the way I am not good at). Pure intervals I can do just fine, of course.
I am sure it’s only something to do repeatedly and I’ll grasp it eventually.
Thanks Domenico, I seem to be bad at following threads, sorry.
MichaelS
