Running

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The Black Keys

Adam Sniezek

T.C. Schmitzer

ENGL 1551/41526

3 December 2015
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The Black Keys

Humanity has always had the natural desire to better itself. The mere existence of

anything today is usually just a continuation of something lesser of years past. Like a raindrop

that is formed and falls onto the confines of a shallow pond, a new innovation causes a ripple

that upsets the natural balance of its surroundings. The piano, a marvel of its time, caused a

ripple that changed the course of music for the worse. The sound quality of music, had the piano

never been created, would be far superior than it is today.

Music is commonly known to be comprised of singular notes which pertain to a particular

melody. According to Ross W. Duffin (2007), Professor at Case Western Reserve and founding

artistic director of Quire Cleveland, “most musicmaking has a harmonic element as well – the

notes of the melody are part of a progression of chords that accompany the melody” (p. 19). To

then understand the significant impact that the piano has had on the sound quality of modern

music, it is thus important to understand the rudimentary concepts behind the “harmonic

elements” of music.

Perhaps the simplest concept of harmony comes with the idea behind intervals. It is

simplest to grasp when beginning with an arbitrary

tone, such as middle “C”, at 264 Hz, which acts as a

starting point, or keynote. According to Erich

Neuwirth, Professor of Statistics and Computer

Science at the University of Vienna (1997), “all

C
further tones are subsequently determined by intervals

that they form with the keynote” (p. 5). For the purpose of this endeavor, the graph on the next

page, by Neuwirth, accurately depicts the C major scale in terms of frequency ratio and
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frequency, wherein each interval is a notably different value than the next. When considering

intervals in the performance of music, the most crucial thing to maintain is being in tune. When

this is not achieved, and two frequencies of close proximity, deviating from their respective pure

ratios, are sounded, a phenomenon called

“beating” occurs. According to Easley

Blackwood (1985), concert pianist and

Professor at the University of Chicago,

“the beat frequency is the difference

between the interacting frequencies. The

response characteristics of the ear cause

the beat frequency to be perceived as a faint wavering sound which seems to have no point of

origin” (p. 7). It should be noted that even though, in the simplest case, only two notes are being

sounded, they are so close in sound that the ear can only distinguish one sound (Lloyd and

Boyle, p. 21). This “wavering” of the sound is highly undesirable, and is in all cases avoided by

musical performers when considering the tuning of music. Another incredibly important factor

that affects harmonics in music is the harmonic series.

The harmonic series plays a huge role in musical harmony. According to Llewellyn S.

Lloyd, head of the music department at the City Literary Institute, and British physicist Hugh

Boyle (1978), a single musical note “is composed of a series of pure tones (partials), sounding

simultaneously, and corresponding to component or partial vibrations of the main vibration” (p.

4). This, in simpler terms, means a single note is naturally composed of various other notes. The

sequence of intervals in a single note is always octave (2:1), fifth (3:2), fourth (4:3), major third
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(5:4), minor third (6:5), and increasingly smaller intervals ad infinitum (Duffin, p. 21). A visual

representation is shown below. The note being sounded is a low “C”, labeled “1.” The note that

is heard is also “C”, but every note, or harmonic, to the right of the “C” is also present and can be

heard, but in a lesser amount. The presence of the lower harmonics, numbers 2-6, are what

contributed to the creation of what we now know as harmony, and are the intervals that most

commonly compose chords. Duffin (2007) later states that “chords in the Western (that is,

European) music traditions, therefore, are not merely a culturally evolved arrangement of

musical sounds into a system but a natural phenomenon based on the physical science of

acoustics” (p. 21). This means that even though chords are based on notes that are stacked upon

each other, the harmonies that they produce are directly, and naturally, governed by the harmonic

series that occurs with all notes.

Everything stated up to this point should have been prefaced, as Lloyd and Boyle state,

that “scales are derived from music as performed – and not vice-versa. A scale, or more

appropriately, a scale-system, is merely a method of classifying and labeling the musical material

used by composers and skilled artists” (p. 173). There are four main periods that occurred for

the creation of what we know as scales today: the stage of primitive music, the stage of

instruments being capable of creating a scale, the stage of theoretical melodic scales, and the

stage of modern harmonic scales, or more commonly coined, “tempered scales” (Wead p.
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421). Music, over time, essentially went from being a language of mere infinite possibilities to

one confined to what are known as temperaments.

Temperament, according to composer and musicologist J. Murray Barbour (1951), is “a

modification of a tuning, and needs radical numbers to express the ratios of some or all of its

intervals” (p. 5). The numbers that were presented in the first paragraph represent what is known

as “true intonation”, which represents the opposite of a temperament. This is a system in which

intonation, or tuning, is flexible, where the less significant intervals are expanded or compressed

in order to benefit the more essential ones, such as the fifth (Lloyd and Boyle p. 173). This

method was representative of a time in which musicians presented their music the way that

sounded best to them (Duffin p. 148). It was a time where, according to Anita T. Sullivan

(1985), a professional piano tuner in Virginia, South Carolina, New Mexico, and Oregon, “the

tuner was not a separate person who came in before the performance: the tuner and composer

(performer) were one and the same individual” (p. 79). It is worth recognizing that true

intonation could not, and still cannot, be used by a piano or keyboard instrument (Lloyd and

Boyle p. 174). This is due to the fact that this tuning method calls for each individual note to be

able to be slightly tampered with to benefit the whole of the sound, to correctly bring out the

harmonies. Temperaments, on the other hand, have a strict and often unforgiving way of acting.

The initial idea behind temperament was to bring a sense of order into the music, while still

keeping the musical values intact. Sullivan (1985) later states that “the earlier ideal in tempered

an non-tempered tuning systems had always been to retain at least a few pure harmonic intervals.

So long as a modicum of perfection was held on to, a whole musical framework could be

maintained” (p. 69). Although there are estimated to be around one hundred fifty known

temperaments, the main three were initially used were Pythagorean, Mean-tone, and Just (Duffin
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p. 17). It should be called to attention that each temperament, as it was, contained intervals that

individually differed in size from the next, shown visually on the basis of frequency ratio on the

next page. Each temperament had minor drawbacks, but they all still successfully maintained to

realize the integrity of the music being played. That was, in fact, until the piano came into the

picture.

Up until the point of the piano’s creation, stringed instruments in general were simple,

and had small ranges and few strings. Such were exemplified by early violins, mandolins, lutes,

and even the harpsichord, the piano’s predecessor (Wead p. 424-426). Every time the musician

would want to change the key of the piece, which was something that became more and more

common as time progressed, they would have to retune the instrument to that specific key;

something that took very little time. But somewhere along the way, an instrument came into

existence with a couple of hundred strings stretched across the soundboard: the piano (Sullivan,

viii). It should be brought to notice that in order to properly tune a piano, it takes roughly an

hour and a half, unlike an organ, which can take upwards of a month (Duffin p. 149). It thus

became apparent to musicians that temperament modulations, or rather key changes, were no

longer possible, or viable, due to the nature of the instrument: something that was quite easy to

achieve with instruments of old (Sullivan p. 80). It was therefore, if the piano was to survive,

crucial to develop a new temperament that, later states Lloyd and Boyle (1978), was “designed to

satisfy as completely as possible three incompatible requirements – true intonation, complete

freedom of modulation, and convenience in practical use in keyed instruments – and that it

sacrifice[d] the first of these to the second and third” (p. 66). This means that true intonation was

put second to the ability and convenience to change keys. It was from that notion that Equal

Temperament was born, or rather formally recognized.

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Equal Temperament was first discovered by the Chinese, long before the existence of the

piano. Equal Temperament, as opposed to other temperaments, takes every semitone in the

musical scale, and puts it the same distance apart; in which each semitone is related to the next

by a factor of the twelfth root of two (Sullivan, p. 68). Because of this, according to Duffin

(2007), the major third in Equal Temperament is “much wider than an acoustically pure major

third, and sounds quite harsh. That’s one of the main reasons that other temperaments were more

popular than ET throughout

history: Musicians were not willing

to tolerate thirds that were so

dissonant.” (p. 38). It came to pass

that the piano, with its large range,

made it essential to use Equal

Temperament, with disregard for

such dissonance. As visually

shown by Neuwirth (1997) on the

graph above, the third of the scale,

which is supposed to be in a ratio

of 5:4 with the keynote, is another

variant. The third becomes

particularly distant from the fourth degree of the scale and much closer to the second. The fifth

of the scale is also slightly narrowed, or lowered, from the acoustically pure ratio of 3:2 (Duffin

p. 38). This “give and take” in the ratios of the individual notes is what gives them the ability to

be equidistant from one another. When it comes down to actually performing, in this case a C
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major scale, the frequencies are significantly altered, as further illustrated by Neuwirth above.

According to Sullivan (1985), “this relentless equality of semitones means that no other interval

within the octave, [other than the octave itself] is quite pure” (p. 68). Please recall the

phenomena of “beating” now. The close, but impure, frequencies that are sounded during Equal

Temperament produce this effect to a large degree: and inevitably, as it should be realized, due to

the nature of the temperament. Next recall the importance of the harmonic series and its impact

on harmony. Duffin (2007) states, “one acoustical characteristic of the modern piano is its

“inharmonicity”” (p. 139). In the case of the piano, the entire sound spectrum is “stretched” in

order to make it in tune. The photo below, by Lloyd and Boyle (1978), illustrates this concept.

According to Hugh and Boyle (1978), this photo displays the frequency readings of “a

particularly close approximation to equal temperament by a skilled tuner . . . and shows

surprisingly good tuning, of a Steinway piano” (p. 76). This use of Equal Temperament, in other

words, favors a system in which harmonics do not naturally interact, therefore rendering

harmony unimportant. These are a few of the reasons as to why Equal Temperament is not

optimum when making music. Perhaps the most troublesome idea, however, and why this is
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being brought to attention in the first place, is that this is the method of tuning that is still used

today.

Since the initial creation of the piano, the use of Equal Temperament was increasingly

used until the year 1917, where it became a universal standard (Duffin p. 138). Duffin (2007)

suggests that “so complete, in fact, has been the adoption of ET that most musicians today are

not even aware that any other system exists or if they exist, that they have any musical worth

whatsoever” (p. 138). Equal Temperament is so widespread it has also branched to all other

areas of music, including rock, pop music, and even synthesizers, which are automatically

hardwired to follow the system. The rationale and practical meaning behind temperament are

also unfortunately no longer a part of the education of musicians (Sullivan, xii). Blackwood

(1985) sums up the delusion that has become Equal Temperament, stating,

No matter how masterful they are as musicians, many performers today don’t hear how

bad the ET major third is because it’s what they’re used to (conditioning) and because

they’ve never heard an acoustically pure major third (ignorance). They’re convinced that

the ET major third must be the proper sound because it’s what is modern – and therefore

obviously more enlightened – theorists have devised (delusion), and they wouldn’t want

to change because it would be too much trouble (convenience). Mostly, they don’t want

to think about it (oblivion). (p. 30)

It thus becomes not only a problem of unknowingness, but also of complacency. Equal

Temperament is undoubtedly an incredibly convenient way of tuning, but at the price of quality.

And perhaps, unless a new innovation takes hold that allows the piano to follow pure tuning, or

even a more pure temperament, the only option, which is not even a viable option in the first

place, is to get rid of the very thing that makes Equal Temperament necessary: the piano.
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Had the piano not come into existence, the sound quality of music today would be

markedly improved, as it would champion true, or pure, intonation. The piano was the single

reason that Equal Temperament had become a standard in the first place, and has remained ever

since. In the beginning, music was tuned and performed to create the best sound possible. As

time progressed, rules were established to introduce structure: and in due time, music, as it is

known today, became an art strictly governed by Equal Temperament, putting the quality of the

sound second. But, just as a single raindrop causes a ripple that brings change upon a pond, the

ripple, by its very nature, decays over time. A new raindrop appears and repeats the process.

Such is the case that, the recent use of Equal Temperament, when compared to all existence, will

slowly fade and be replaced by countless other alternatives in an impending storm of change that

will inevitably change the state of music as it is known today.

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Works Cited

Barbour, J. Murray (1951). Tuning and Temperament: A Historical Survey. East

Lansing, MI: Michigan State College Press.

Blackwood, Easley (1985). The Structure of Recognizable Diatonic Tunings.

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Duffin, Ross W. (2007). How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony: (and Why You

Should Care). New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.

Lloyd, LL. S., & Boyle, Hugh (1978). Intervals, Scales, and Temperaments. New York,

NY: St. Martin’s Press.

Neuwirth, Erich (1997). Musical Temperaments. (Rita Steblin, Trans.) New York,

NY: Springer. (Original work published in 1997)

Sullivan, Anita T. (1985). The Seventh Dragon: The Riddle of Equal Temperament.

Lake Oswego, OR: Metamorphous Press.

Wead, Charles Kasson (1902). Contributions to the History of Musical Scales.

Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

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Bibliography

Barbour, J. Murray (1951). Tuning and Temperament: A Historical Survey. East

Lansing, MI: Michigan State College Press.

Blackwood, Easley (1985). The Structure of Recognizable Diatonic Tunings.

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Duffin, Ross W. (2007). How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony: (and Why You

Should Care). New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.

Lloyd, LL. S., & Boyle, Hugh (1978). Intervals, Scales, and Temperaments. New York,

NY: St. Martin’s Press.

Neuwirth, Erich (1997). Musical Temperaments. (Rita Steblin, Trans.) New York,

NY: Springer. (Original work published in 1997)

Regener, Eric (1973). Pitch Notation and Equal Temperament: A Formal Study.

Berkeley, CA: University Of California Press.

Sullivan, Anita T. (1985). The Seventh Dragon: The Riddle of Equal Temperament.

Lake Oswego, OR: Metamorphous Press.

Wead, Charles Kasson (1902). Contributions to the History of Musical Scales.

Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.