Temperament - Kawai ES7 Owner's Manual

section
Virtual Technician
2-9

Temperament

The Temperament setting allows the tuning system used by the ES7 digital piano to be changed from the modern
'Equal Temperament' standard to one of the various temperaments popularised during the Renaissance and
Baroque periods. It is also possible to create customised temperaments using the User Temperaments function.
Temperament types
Temperament type
Equal Temperament (piano)
(Equal P.only)
Pure Temperament
/
(Pure Major Pure Minor)
Pythagorean Temperament
(Pythagorean)
Meantone Temperament
(Meantone)
Werckmeister III Temperament
(Werkmeister)
Kirnberger III Temperament
(Kirnberger)
Equal Temperament (flat)
(Equal Flat)
Equal Temperament
(Equal Stretch)
User Temperament
(User)
1. Selecting the Temperament setting
After entering the Virtual Technician menu (page 84):
Press the or MENU buttons to select the Temperament
setting.
2. Changing the Temperament type
Press the or VALUE buttons to cycle through the different
temperament types.
* Any changes made to the Temperament settings will remain until the
power is turned off.
* Preferred Temperament settings can be stored to a Registration
memory for convenient recall. Please refer to page 34 for more
information.
94
Description
This is the default temperament. When a piano sound is selected, the tuning will be stretched like an
acoustic piano (equal temperament).
* If any other type of sound is selected, the tuning will be set to equal temperament (flat).
This temperament, which eliminates dissonances for thirds and fifths, is still popular in choral music
because of its perfect harmony. Any key modulation will result in dissonances.
* The key of the temperament, and major/minor setting must be correctly matched.
This temperament, which uses mathematical ratios to eliminate dissonance for fifths, is very limited for
use with chords, but produces very characteristic melodic lines.
This temperament, which uses a mean between a major and minor whole tone to eliminate dissonance
for thirds, was devised to eliminate the lack of consonances experienced with certain fifths for the
Mersenne pure temperament.
It produces chords that are more beautiful than those played with equal temperament.
These two temperaments are placed in between Meantone and Pythagorean. For music with few
accidentals, this temperament produces the beautiful chords of the mean tone, but as accidentals
increase, the temperament produces the characteristic melodies of the Pythagorean temperament.
It is used primarily for classical music written in the Baroque era to revive the original characteristics.
This is an 'unstretched' equal temperament that divides the scale into twelve equal semi-tones. It produces
the same chordal intervals in all twelve keys, and has the advantage of limitless modulation of the key.
However the tonality of each key becomes less characteristic and no chord is in pure consonance.
This is the most popular piano temperament. The hearing ability of a human is uneven and is not as
accurate with high frequency and low frequency as it is with the middle range. This temperament's
tuning is stretched to compensate for this so the sound will be heard naturally to the ears. This
'stretched' equal temperament is a practical variation of the 'unstretched' equal temperament which
was invented on a mathematical basis.
A custom, user temperament, created by raising or lowering the pitch for each semi-tone.
2-9 Temperament
= Equal (P.only)
2-9 Temperament
= Equal (P.only)
2-9 Temperament
= Meantone