Re: Re: [Harp-L] Re: Temperments of other instruments

["Tim Moyer" <wmharps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chords on pianos are generally far more complex in overtones than 
those on a harmonica.  In a piano, the strings are attached to a 
sounding board that encourages other strings to contribute to the 
overall tone being produced by vibrating at a sympathetic frequency, 
which helps to mask disonnance between non-fundamental intervals.  
Also, the piano tuner makes choices in tempering the tuning that help 
to diminish the audible effect of the disonnance, by spreading the 
compromises to intervals that are less likely to be used.  It's not 
simply a matter of tuning the notes to mathematically derived 
frequencies and calling it done.  

-tim


Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@...> wrote:
> It may have something to do with the timbre of the harmonica. Or 
> it could be that we're all trained to hear the piano a certain 
> way by long exposure and don't tend to notice that the chords are 
> acoustically out of tune.
> 
> Sergei <svolkov@...> wrote:
> > Why do chords on piano sound beautiful, and chords on Lee 
> > Oskars sound dreadful?