Violin intonation on the harmonics), losing the desired tone, brilliance and intonation. String longevity depends on string quality and playing intensity. A violin is tuned in fifths, in the notes G, D, A, E. The lowest note of a violin, tuned normally, is G, or G below middle C. (On rare occasions, the lowest string may be tuned down by as much as a fourth, to D.) The highest note is less well defined: E, the E two octaves above the open string (which is tuned to E) may be considered a practical limit for orchestral violin parts, but it is
The Well-Tuned Piano octaves, with nine notes extending the bass of the piano. Young describes the pitches of his tuning as being, "derived from various partials of the overtone series of an inferred low fundamental E-flat reference ten octaves below the lowest E-flat on the Bösendorfer Imperial". Although it might seem that Young is giving a nod to Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier" with his title "The Well-Tuned Piano", musical tuning and musical temperament are two very different things. Temperament actually involves the deliberate mistuning of pitches to make the overall octave more or less usable in various different tones. In "The Well-Tuned Piano",