Klarinet Archive - Posting 000440.txt from 1998/09

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Pitch standards
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 15:35:09 -0400

On 14 Sep 1998 charette@-----.org wrote:

> Not exactly. This standard stands by itself, in this case an unambiguous
> motion over time, and temperature does not come into play.

I'm having some trouble understanding what you are saying here, or perhaps
why you are saying it. When a physical apparatus, such as a musical
instrument, is involved, temperature always comes into play. When the
Fox company makes a bassoon, they say that the pitch level is something
like A=440 or A=442 *at a certain temperature,* such as 70 or 72 degrees
Fahrenheit. And, if the instrument must be played at 60 degrees, or 90
degrees, that its pitch level will change seems so obvious as to not need
to be stated.

I just received a letter from the Heckel company in Germany, in which they
responded to my request for information about my instrument. They told me
that it was made in 1923, and that it originally was designed to play in
tune at A@-----. Also, those notorious pitched percussion
instruments which have been discussed are also intended to play at their
nominal frequency, whatever that may be, but only at a specified
temperature. Now, the situation is made even more complicated due to the
fact that the reason an instrument changes temperature is due to a change
in the temperature of the ambient air. And, those changes also affect the
frequency of musical sounds.

So, how is it that you feel that temperature never comes into the play?

Ed Lacy
el2@-----.edu

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