Klarinet Archive - Posting 000350.txt from 2003/08

From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Perfect pitch
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 11:59:41 -0400

An interesting pair of postings came across the list in the last hour
with one maintaining that perfect would be an advantage to clarinet
players, and the other questioning that assertion.

I am afraid that I have to question that assertion also. In fact, I
believe that perfect pitch would be a serious inconvenience to anyone
playing clarinet and then transposing a part on a different clarinet.
The "what one sees is not what one gets" would seem to me to be a
considerable pain in the neck.

And should the conductor say, "Take it down a half step," the problem
magnifies itself.

Except in very rare and specialized cases, perfect pitch could be a
significant annoyance. Bela Bartok is said to have had perfect pitch
AND perfect rhythm, the latter being unusally rare. But hearing a work
done at a change of pitch and below or above what he perceived as the
"correct" rhythm was said to cause him physical pain.

Dan
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**Dan Leeson **
**leeson0@-----.net **
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