Tunings & Tunes by The Jon Rose Archive

released July 3, 2025

Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, recorded by Jo Santy at The Brussels Musical Instrument Museum, Friday 13/5/2005.
Tracks 9, 10, 11 recorded by Michael W. Huon at a live concert in his studio, 28/9/2001 Brussels.
Tracks 5, 12, and the bonus track were recorded in concert by Jo Santy at The Brussels Musical Instrument Museum 14/5/2005
Keyboards:
Instruments courtesy of The Brussels Musical Instrument Museum and facilitated by Jo Santy:
Jan Boon harpsichord after Domenico da Pesaro; actual pitch A3=440 Hz; meantone temperament. This instrument was positioned next to and played in parallel with a Robert Brown fortepiano after Anton Walter; actual pitch A3=438; equal temperament.
Patrick Collon regal organ, built in the spirit of the Frauenfeld bible regal (and looks like a huge monastic bible when shut); variable temperament. And sitting on the same table could be found also an anonymous German portatif organ, built in the style of a Frauenfeld regal, with 8, 4 and 2ft. registers and parchment-operated keyboard - but according to Jo Santy not really a Frauenfeld regel at all; extremely variable temperament (verging on Rosenberg Augmented)
Instruments courtesy of The Chris Maene Collection and facilitated by Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg:
A copy of a Graf fortepiano from the time of Ludwig van Beethoven; actual pitch A3=425; Pythagoran temperament, occasionally ghosted by a Broadwood Grand from the time of Liberace.

Violins:
“The Survivor” Violin built by Harry Vatiliotis of Sydney, number 375 made in 1980 by Australia’s premiere and most prolific maker. Tuning is standard at G, D, A, E; A3= 430. This violin is so named as it used up at least two of its lives in the space of one month in 1996.
At the Palau town festival in Sardinia, a sudden freak storm hit just before the start of a late night solo concert in the main square. As I had set up, I felt a few drops of rain. “It-e never rain-e in Sardinia” the stage manager said as a deluge dropped from on high. All the lights went out and the open-air stage was suddenly covered with a ragging torrent. Stage manager and I started screaming match. Stumbling around in the dark I managed to find my violin, threw it in a plastic sack along with all my piles of interactive electronic gear and headed for the one light I could see in the distance. The light belonged to a pizzeria; unfortunately, most of the audience had the same idea and were trying to escape the downpour in the same little building. About 300 people stood packed in on top of tables as the water rushed across the floor. Luckily the storm ceased before the building collapsed. I reached into the plastic garbage bag (for that’s what it was) and pulled out my violin; it was full of water and badly scratched. It’s not going to sound the same after this I thought to myself as I lifted the instrument and poured the water out over my head.
Only a few weeks later I am setting up for the “What Is Music Festival?” in Melbourne. I had just put down my violin on the floor to quickly adjust the amplifier when an apparition from hell came bounding across the stage, half fell down a hole in said stage, reached out to save himself but in doing so pushed over a high hat from the drum kit parked nearby, high hat lands on violin rather like an axe blade, apparition throws out another hand to brake his fall, a crate of empty beer bottles lands on top of axe blade on top of violin.
Later on that night as I drank my 10th Gin and Tonic without the slightest chance of getting drunk, I wondered how I was going to tell the violin’s maker, and my mate Harry, what had happened. I rang him the next day to explain. “Are all the bits there?” asked Harry as I looked down at the savage cuts and splits. The bits were indeed all there and Harry molded, nudged, cleaned, restored, clamped and glued the instrument back together again at no cost to me, and all within four weeks. I’m very attached to this violin and its maker.
“The Bird”, a tenor violin built by Vatiliotis in 2004 from Jon Rose specifications. This violin is slightly larger than a normal fiddle and tuned an octave lower, with four sympathetic strings also passing through the bridge. This violin was designed and set up in such a way that the sympathetic strings not only resonate but vigorously “excite” in certain registers. The scordatura tuning is G, D, A, C; the sympathetics are set to G, A, B, C; A3=430.
“The Black” five-string violin was made by an anonymous Bavarian(?) luthier. The scordatura tuning is Eb, G, Ab, A, Bb, utilising all gut-wound G strings.
Hsing-Hai violin, People’s Republic China, Batch 74, number 61415; scordatura G, G’, D, D’ [see Violin Factory project].

Trying to string together concerts is hard enough in the area of improvised music, but trying to put together unfashionable concerts that feature rare and unusual instruments often requiring specialized tuning in a responsive acoustic setting stretches credibility. However, over the years a few concert organisers, recording engineers, musicians and fans have helped us follow this particular passion. We would like to say a big thank you and dedicate this album to them (the names are not in any batting order).
Jozef Cseres (Director of The Rosenberg Museum, Slovakia), Jo Santy, Julo Fujak, Michal Murin, Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg (Director of Inaudible Music Festival), David Subik and Alena Smidova (Brno), Hans Falp (Nickelsdorf Festival), Olga Smetanova (Director Slovakian New Music Information Service), Chris Maene, Massimo Ongaro (Venice), Ute Pinter, Riccardo Farnea, Michael W. Huon, Thierry Schaeffer (L’instant Chavirés), Dan Warburton, Matthias Osterwold (Maerz Musik), Gregor Mendel, Manon Lui Winter, Aleks Kolkowski, Christoph Huber, Hollis Taylor.