Klarinet Archive - Posting 000474.txt from 1998/09

From: ROBERT ABRAHAM <rkabear@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] NEW THREAD!
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 07:12:09 -0400

Fooled ya! This is again about that dreaded pitch standard thing that everyone is deleting before reading.

I had to put my two cents worth here (that's all it's worth.)

I agree with a standard being static. No matter what temperature or tuning someone does, 440 is standard A (at least in the books, for the most part,) while A doesn't have to be 440 when pitch and tunings differ. I guess the point is standard shouldn't change with the whim of a concertmaster, nor with the temperature outside. If it is over 100 degrees or below 40, most instruments cannot get near a common pitch anyway. Clarinets and Saxophones are flat when cold, brass instruments are sharp when cold (exchange pitch tendencies when hot.) So no matter if a clarinet A concert note on a 440 pitched instrument is playing at 443 because it is 104 degrees where the concert is, 440 should still be sought after (or whatever the standard is in other countries, or becomes.) Otherwise, pitch center will never be fully achieved by the instruments that are made to play at another pitch.

I really think that this is some demented machisimo for strings and brass that can more easily pull slides in and out, or tune strings higher. I think that probably we in America adhere to 440 (or 442) even though we do have a semblance of an idea that sharper might mean more projection and a brighter quality, because we are not willing to sacrifice pitch center to go for that ego stroking.

Japan is also one of the ones mentioned earlier (I think) that was into a 440/442 pitch center instead of 444 and up. Maybe this has something to do with comments I have heard from colleages and teachers about American and Japanese orchestras seeming more precise, while European orchestras seeming more emotional. Any ideas?

Just to beat a dead horse into the ground ;-)

Kelly Abraham
Woodwinds/Computer Geek
New York City

Get free e-mail and a permanent address at http://www.netaddress.com/?N=1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------