Klarinet Archive - Posting 000350.txt from 1997/01

From: Fred Jacobowitz <fredj@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Tuning 440vs442
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 08:08:03 -0500

Scott,
Wow, I never thought about that. However, I think the flaw in that
thoery is that back in the bad old days of 78's, etc., noone really
thought of recorded music as more than a cute novelty to make some extra
money. Most people didn't even have victrolas and records were very
expensive. Live performance was where it was at and to get an orchestra to
tune low would mean different sets of wind instruments, etc. I can't
believe they'd go to all that trouble.

Fred Jacobowitz
Clarinet/Sax Instructor, Peabody Preparatory

On Tue, 21 Jan 1997, Scott D. Morrow wrote:

> >From Fred Jacobowitz:
>
> >... In general, the higher the pitch, the more lively
> >the sound quality of the ensemble. This is why pitch generally crept up
> >throughout the 19th century from the old A 430 (or less) to the unplayable
> >A 450 (or so) before an international convention fixed it at a 440.
> >Orchestras needed greater projection of sound for the larger halls that
> >were being built and rather than develop the instruments (as is now the
> >case), they tried other ways such as higher tuning.
>
> I wouldn't be a bit surprised if orchestras tuned low at the
> beginning of this century to compensate for the higher-pitched output on 78
> rpm recordings! (I heard an interesting story on NPR, once, about the
> recording restoration lab at Princeton University. They have a variable
> speed turntable and were slowing down old recordings to tune them to the
> original scores. In doing so, they found out that one of the great early
> tenors, of whom we only had "record" records, was not really a tenor at
> all! The higher pitches on the recordings just made him sound that way!)
>
> -Scott
>
> P.S. My trick for tuning is you play whatever you want. If necessary,
> turn to the pianist and say "You're flat!"
> -SDM
>
> Scott D. Morrow
> Department of Biochemistry
> School of Hygiene and Public Health
> Johns Hopkins University
> (410)-955-3631
>
> SDM@-----.edu
>