A few months after restoring the Bechstein Clark stopped by to finish voicing. And to tune it No. 8056. The final act he did for me the final favor was to record in a way that tuning so that I could recreate it. And then handing me the pocket computer on which he recorded it (for which I admittedly paid him a pretty penny but in a few tunings the little contraption would pay for itself).
It seems like cheating in a way but I had the utmost respect for Clark (who indeed tuned by ear... a prerequisite for any technician I would let tune the Bechstein). For him it was more a method on which to tune certain pianos exactly the same way each and every time. Also now to allow someone like myself to tune it as he would in his absence.
Last November I went through the motions... now it is time to do it again.
I started by having J help weave the red felt strip through the two octaves of the temperament.
My helper here looking on...
Then I pulled out the small computer and scrolled through to find the recording Clark had made that was now priceless to me. Cherished.
The application is known as the Reyburn Cybertuner. I do not presume to understand exactly how it works or how it captures all the stretch of the octaves or the partial overtones of a hundred-and-forty-year-old grand piano. To use it though is painlessly simple. J would strike a note...
And then we would watch The Spinner...
... me nudging the tuning lever ever so slightly this way or that showing him until it lined up in the middle of the circle. Then move to the next note. Tap. Tap. On up the temperament we went.
Onward to the octaves above. And the octaves below until all eighty-five notes had been carefully set to Clark's meticulous tuning two years ago forever stored in silicon. Then the unisons... all one-hundred-seventy of them.
A beautiful thing a freshly-tuned piano...
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