Klarinet Archive - Posting 000214.txt from 1998/09

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Short barrels
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1998 23:39:43 -0400

At 08:14 PM 9/6/98 EDT, Lelia Loban wrote:
>Bill Hausmann wrote:
>>>The "brighter" sound theory is only my suggested explanation for the pitch
>discrepancy. I can think of no other logical explanation. For instument
>makers to arbitrarily make their instruments play sharp to stand out from
>the rest is too outrageous to contemplate.>>
>
>These explanations aren't mutually exclusive. My husband is a serious
amateur
>violinist. (He studied with, among others, Mischa Mischakoff, who spent 17
>years as Toscanini's concertmaster with the NBC Symphony.) For centuries, it
>has been the custom of solo violinists to tune slightly sharper than the rest
>of the orchestra, in order to stand out. Sooner or later, the orchestra
>violinists begin to feel as though they're flat, and so they creep
sharper, to
>match the soloist, who responds by tuning still higher, etc. Conductors in
>America prefer it if soloists will hold themselves down to a=442 to avoid
>pitch creep, but these days quite a lot of violin soloists tune to a=444 or
>even a@-----. I wouldn't be
>surprised if soloists on other instruments also tune high to sound brighter,
>with the result that manufacturers make instruments that will tolerate this
>ratchetting up of the pitch.
>
If soloists feel the need to play sharp to stand out, I guess I can accept
this. For the rest of the section to tune sharp to match not only defeats
the soloist's purpose, but throws the whole tuning of the orchestra out of
whack. For instrument manufacturers to aid and abet this process is simply
ludicrous! That is the thrust of my complaint.

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://members.wbs.net/homepages/z/o/o/zoot14.html
ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.

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