Richter vs. Modern Compromise?
Mon, 06/01/2015 - 08:20
This is my first post and I apologize in advance if this question seems ridiculous and obvious but I'm relatively ignorant on music theory. The question; what is the difference between standard richter tuning and modern compromise tuning, and more specifically, would I play a modern-compromise tuned harmonica the same way I would my good ol' standard richter-tuned? Any (and all!) information or help with this would be really appreciated! Thanks for your time reading this novice inquiry!
First, let me make a couple of distinctions.
Your question seems to be about temperament, or the fine tuning of notes. You can have two harmonicas with the notes laid out exactly the same, but by micro-tuning some of the notes slightly higher or lower, they'll give an overall different feel - chords may sound smooth and full, or kind of harsh, while some notes may sound a litle too low when played alongside notes on piano.
That's temperament.
You can lay out the notes differently, with different notes in different holes. That's tuning, or note layout.
You can construct a harmonica in different ways, with single holes or a double row of holes, and with blow and draw notes on separate reedplates or on the same plate. That's construction.
Properly speaking, Richter is a construction, not a note layout or a temperament. In Richter construction you have blow reeds on the upper reedplate, draw reeds on the lower plate, and a single row of holes with a blow and a draw reed in each hole.
However, Richter has also come to refer to the commonly used note layout in most diatonic harmonicas.
Temperaments include various versions of just intonation (another word for temperament), often abbreviated JI; equal temperament (often abbreviated ET or 12TET); and various comrpomises between them.
Just intonation is based on tuning notes according to simple ratios (for deeper reading on this, read up on the harmonic series aka the overtone series). Depending on how far you go into these ratios, you can get more sophisticated forms of JI. 7-limit JI goes up to ratios of 7:1, while modern harmonica tuners often use 19-limit JI.
Diatonic harmonicas were originally tuned to 7-limit JI. This gave smooth, full-sonding chords, but some individual notes were flat compared to a piano, especially Draw 5. (Blow 2, 5, and 8, and Draw 3 and 7 are also noticeably flat compared with a piano.) 19-Limit JI gives more choices for getting Draw 5 to sound more in tune, but overall JI tends to work best for simple chords and musical relationships - put one thing into tune and you put others out of tune. Oer the centuries, dozens of different temperament shcemes have been used to try and balance good sounding chords with single notes that sound right, usually by hiding the really bad sounds in keys that nobody plays in.
Modern musical instruments are mostly tuned to 12TET (the 12T part referes to 12 tones of the chromatic scale). 12TET puts everything equally but slightly out of tune so that in verey key all chords and all notes sound sort of OK - except on the diatonic harmonica, where chords sound very harsh. Very few models of harmonica are tuned to 12TET. The Hohner Golden Melody is the best known one. People often say that Lee Oskar harps are tuned to 12TET but they're not; they use a unique compromise.
Compromise tunings try to split the difference between having chords in perfect tune and melody notes not sounding flat. To hear the differences, I suggest you check out Pat Missin's articles on tuning, with audio examples, at http://www.patmissin.com/tunings/tunings.html
Hope this helps a bit.