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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000087.txt from 2007/10

From: Jon Julian <jon@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [DR-L] Play loud ...and louder!
Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2007 19:34:28 -0400

Ah, yes - the tuning terrors. I have a suspicion that when the oboist
sounds a pitch and people jump in immediately, each louder than the
other (that's not ultimately really possible, is it?) - each is
trying to impose or assert their pitch center - I was taught to
listen for a moment and then try to quietly adjust to the pitch - but
that was some years ago in a perhaps less self-centered society. But
as an aside, in my clarinet days I knew that on one of my instruments
my tuning "A" had to be a little bit one way or the other, I forget
now, for the instrument in general to be tuned to the pitch center.
Of course we have to remember that every note needs to be tuned/
played with the idea that it will need adjustment to be just right,
both because 1) all of the notes on even our fine instruments cannot
be built exactly in tune and 2) their function in the harmonic
structure makes a difference every time we play them, and 3) if
someone else is a little "out" and can't/won't adjust, we must either
do it or become the perpetrators of fingernails on the chalkboard.
(One of my pet peeves in years of band playing has been that the
bassoon is often paired with the - well, I call it euphemistically
and ironically the "euphorium", whose pitch tendencies on several
notes are just opposite from the bassoon, and whose players for
whatever reason simply do not seem to be able to hear the bassoon.

I think I have succeeded in repeating what everyone else has said -
guess lots of us need to get these exasperations off our chests.

Jon Julian

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