Klarinet Archive - Posting 000506.txt from 2002/05

From: Richard Bush <rbushidioglot@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Perfect Pitch
Date: Sun, 19 May 2002 23:29:41 -0400

Historically, an "A is an A is an A" just hasn't been that
way. Before anything was standardized, an A was usually
whatever the town's church organ happened to be built at. Not
only were the A's different from village to village, the ways
that the notes within each octave also changed over time. Some
of this evolution of tuning had to do with what composers
wrote or even what "The Church" deemed appropriate. All of
this is fascinating history to some.

Many "period" orchestras that play music on instruments, or
replicas of instruments, that were in use at the time of
various composers use the tuning that was used then. I have a
fantastic recording of Mozart's "Grand Partita" (sp?) played
at a tuning of about 415. This is approximately a half step
lower sounding than what it would be if it were played on
today's instruments. Tony Pay plays fantastic clarinet on it.
It is quite amazing because he's using an instrument with very
few keys.

Don't you think it is a good idea that you can move from town
to town and not have to buy new instruments?

Neptune's Vengeance wrote:

>
>>
>> On the other hand, the baroque/classical oboist Michel Piguet has
>> extremely acute perfect pitch, but he switches easily from 440 to 427
>> (which is more or less the standard for "classical instrument" Mozart)
>> to 415 (1/2 step below 440 and the standard for "baroque instrument"
>> work) to 410, 405 and 392 ("French pitch," a whole step down from
>> 440). He also switches among various temperaments. He told me it takes
>> him a few minutes to get used to the new bearing, and then he doesn't
>> notice it.
>>
>
> What exactly is the significance of having different A's to tune to? I
> mean, I would think an A is and A is an A. I just don't see the big deal
> in playing a song tuned to A@-----. Is it all about
> the temperment differences we discussed a couple of weeks ago?
> Thanks,
> Natalie
>
> Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.
>
>
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