Klarinet Archive - Posting 000087.txt from 1995/05

From: John Reed Wilcox <wilco015@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Woodwind Quintet Intonation Problems
Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 02:55:43 -0400

On Mon, 1 May 1995 12:34:50 -0700,
Laurence Liberson <hardreed@-----.COM> wrote:

>>> I have been playing in a woodwind quintet for many years and I hear on
>>> recordings of our concerts a very consistant problem - intonation all
>>> over the place. Intonation is the area that we could use the most
>>> work on.
>>>
>>> Do members of the group have any thoughts on ways to improve
>>> intonation?
>>>
>>> Also we are looking for a new horn player. Does anyone know of a good
>>> horn player that lives in the Boston area? (We are based in the Boston
>>> area.)
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>>
>>> Mike Roesler
>>>
>>> email: miker@-----.com
>>>
>>
Mike--
One thing that I have done, using my computer, to help me with intonation
is to write simple programs in BASIC to generate pitches using "just"
scales. That is, for example, on the A clarinet, 440, 440x9/8, 440x5/4,
etc. I do it for 2 octaves, sort of like page 123 of Klose, for all 4
of my clarinets (A,Bb,C, and Bass). It was easy to do scales in 3rds, and
major chords. Haven't gotten to minor scales yet. I picked "do" to be
the tempered pitch for ecah scale. That can be debated, I think. I think
that the problem with the MIDI approach is that it uses tempered tuning.
There the 3rds, 6ths, and 7ths will be too high. I'm happy to share my
programs with anyone who wishes.

John Wilcox
>