Klarinet Archive - Posting 000056.txt from 2000/01

From: "David B. Niethamer" <dnietham@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Concert A
Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2000 22:08:49 -0500

on 1/2/00 11:02 AM, Sean Osborn wrote:

>In my experience, most people do not listen to the Oboe and play where they
>will. I wish it were different,

Amen!!

>but I also think its about 150 years past
>the time where we should be tuning to such a soft instrument. Once a few
>people start playing, you can't even hear the Oboe.

My view of tuning on stage (or in the pit) is that it has become part of
the ritual, and not a serious effort to tune together. I don't think this
is particularly a bad thing. I think the real tuning work needs to come
1.) in the rehearsals, as necessary, from the conductor (and I know for
most conductors this is wishful thinking - they're most of them deaf!),
and 2.) from the individual player, who has a responsibility to play at
the pitch of his/her ensemble with a certain amount of predictable
accuracy. This means knowing the tendencies of your instrument, and
dealing with them to get to 44x, wherever your ensemble plays.

>Our oboists are quite
>excellent and generally give a good 440 A, but we rarely play that low, and
>it has recently been a contentious subject.

I'm glad to hear this about a really first rate orchestra, because we
have the same difficulties and the same contentiousness. We tune at "440
and up" as some of our wags put it. See #2 above - but having said that,
you also have to play in the real world, which for winds and brass means
a certain amount of sharpness in certain circumstances. As a
professional, you have to be ready to deal with a certain amount of this.
We have a member of our wind section who can undoubtedly stop the LCD
meter on her tuner for any pitch - but she can't match pitch (and timbre
to some degree) with colleagues to save her life. Not a useful
professional skill.

>The most in tune I ever played
>was when Frederick Fennell tuned the Interlochen Symphonic Band (summer
>1983) to the Trombone section. He then added a section at a time.
>Personally, I think tuning to Trumpet or Trombone would make more sense.

See #1 above. If the conductor lets the ensemble know that he/she is
serious about good intonation, players start to pay closer attention. And
tuning "from the bottom up" is to me the superior way to go. [but can you
see taking the A from a trombone or tuba? You wouldn't *hear* the A for
the laughter!! ;-) ]

>Some orchestras tune to an electronic sound coming from several on-stage
>speakers. I'm torn about that. On the one hand, you can hear it, on the
>other, it's not usually a sound you like hearing.

We used an electronic A for a while, to eliminate the contentiousness
about the pitch. Our last music director made us go back to the oboe. Now
we have two tuners off stage for people to use prior to the
rehearsal/concert.

</soapbox off>

David

David Niethamer
Principal Clarinet, Richmond Symphony
dnietham@-----.edu
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org