Klarinet Archive - Posting 000089.txt from 2004/02

From: ormondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: Re: [kl] Possibility of making music in the streets / tube in
Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2004 11:45:46 -0500

Noel=A0Taylor wrote:

> In fact the OED has 'pitch' as a British usage
> "a place where a street vendor or performer
> stations themselves".

It took a few minutes for my memory to percolate, but now I remember
attending a music festival in the U.K. An evening dance was to be held
after a concert in order that we could experience the music more
completely. The gentleman on the stage announced: "The map in your
program shows where a tent has been erected on the pitch."

I remember wondering at the time whether "pitch" meant that the ground
was sloped (rolling hills in the area). I decided that this wasn't
reasonable if we were going to dance, and I began to think about fields
where cricket is played and balls are "pitched". When I arrived, the
area was a flat field. A temporary wooden floor had been laid down on
the field, and a tent had been installed over the floor, but I noticed
that some of the local people referred to the wooden floor --- not to
the field --- as "the pitch'.

All of this lodged in the depths of my memory, probably because I
enjoyed the dance, and your post has summoned all of it back to my
conscious mind. Now I can see that "pitch" may have referred the fact
that musicians were playing for us "on the pitch", which was inside a
tent on this occasion.

It's interesting the think of all the meanings for "pitch", including
the musical meaning of frequency, as well as a 'sales pitch' and 'sticky
tar or sap'. The meaning of 'a place to play music' is the one meaning
not included in my copy of Webster's dictionary.

Thanks, Tim

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