Klarinet Archive - Posting 000552.txt from 1999/03

From: "Dee D. Hays" <deehays@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Pitch over the years
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1999 23:12:29 -0500

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Charette <charette@-----.org>
Date: Tuesday, March 09, 1999 10:04 PM
Subject: Re: [kl] Pitch over the years

>From: Karl Krelove <kkrelove@-----.com>
>>I've wondered about this, too. Can the dimensions of wooden instruments
>be
>>relied on to have remained stable over a hundred or two hundred years?
>And
>>I've played in some churches with pipe organs that were built during
>the
>>first part of _this_ century that were hopelessly below A440.
>
>
>The 1st part of this century A _was_ officially pitched below 440
>(Normal Continental@-----.
>
>The woodwinds may have changed a few Hz - not enough to discount trends.
>
>----
>Mark Charette@-----.org/clarinet

I agree that dimensional changes would not have been enough to significantly
change the pitch. The main driver in dimensional changes is the drying of
the wood. Most of that occurs within the first few years of its life. So
current instruments would be affected just as much as ones a couple of
hundred years old.

And don't forget the brasswinds. They would have no problems with drying
out and pitch changes over time. Weren't organs built with metal pipes? If
so, they would have had no pitch changes over time either.

Dee Hays
Canton, SD

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