Klarinet Archive - Posting 000586.txt from 2004/01

From: RichChPlay@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] Correction: Pro/Amateur Section Evaluation of Tuneup: Bootcamp
Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2004 00:13:04 -0500

on 1/17/04 12:06 PM, Stephen Colley wrote:

>Is it fair suggest that intonation is less of a concern for woodwinds as
>it is for brass?

Not less of a concern, but a tougher nut to crack. String and brass
families make their sounds in similar ways, and thus have a little easier
time getting things in tune within the family. Since all the woodwinds
make their sounds with different kinds of sound generators (single reeds,
double reeds, flute embouchure holes), and since their bore
configurations are all different (conical, cylindrical, poly-cylindrical,
open pipe, closed pipe) the problems are a bit tougher.

>Listening to "Performance Today" and the many concerts I
>attend, pitch for the winds is considerably less refined than the brass,
>in general. I was seeking a recording of Wagner's Parsifal Prelude to Act
>I and found one of the top orchestras in the world to have a huge
>discrepancy betweeen wind and brass intonation.

Not a real surprise. Also, I found in the Richmond Symphony that blending
of tone color also had a lot to do with it. It may be a "chicken & egg"
situation, but tuning and section blend seemed to go hand in hand. If
players were blending well with their section colleagues, the small
intonation discrepancies were less noticeable. Those who were determined
to be "soloists" at all costs made the faulty tuning more noticeably
obvious.

Just my $0.02

David

David Niethamer
dnietham@-----.edu
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/

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