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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000097.txt from 2007/10
From: "Edward B. Flowers" <flowerse@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [DR-L] Play loud ...and louder!
Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2007 08:09:49 -0400
Jon,
Stuart Dunkle told us this summer that the reason that orchestras
started tuning to the oboe was that the oboe's intonation was the least
controllable.
Edward B. Flowers (ob, EH)
New York City
Jon Julian wrote:
> 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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