Klarinet Archive - Posting 000300.txt from 2004/11

From: "David Renaud" <manonrivet@-----.ca>
Subj: Re: [kl] pitch standard
Date: Sun, 7 Nov 2004 18:08:11 -0500

Tony

I see we are one of my pet topics again..
Thank you for your expert input here.
Love this stuff........
It is complex

One point I made and you note is confusing I will attempt to clarify.

I say margins of accepable pitch are wider in the top by HZ.
because there are more Hz in a cent.

There are about 27Hz(approximate) or so cents bettween A4 and Bb4
but approximately 54Hz bettween A5 and Bb5
approximitley 108 Hz bettween A6 and Bb6
and Approx 216 Hz between A7 and Bb7
But all semitones are 100 cents

The window into which a pitch fits into a hamonic spectrum of support
from octaves below becomes wider with increasingly higher pitches
for there are some choice as to the amount of stretch to match and blend
above a supporting harmonic structure.

BUT by the same token the window for a unision up there becomes
increasingly fussy and fine.

So I am right in the statment below with regards to placement of a note
harmonicly in a cord ,
But wrong in terms of how accurate matching that unison become.

> > In the upper and lower ends margins of error increase
exponentially....more
> > then 4 cents.
>
> This is a bit confusing. Actually, it's just in the upper register that
you
> can't afford to be 'out' by too much. There, if you make errors that are
too
> large, you can't play well in tune.
>
> In fact, I think it's better to talk about your errors in terms of Hz.
So,
> in the simplest case of unisons, because you need to keep the beat-rate
low,
> you need to match the *frequencies* equally accurately in whatever
register
> you are. You can see that, high up, the fraction of a semitone (the
number
> of cents) you can be out is smaller.
>
> Added to all of that, what isn't often appreciated is that 'out of tune'
> itself is highly context dependent.
>
> To take an extreme example: a couple of years ago I played a piece that
was
> written for two orchestras (the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and
the
> Birmingham Contemporary Music Group) that were tuned respectively to A430
and
> A440, which is a *50 cent* difference!!
>
> Much of the piece was written to be played by only one of these groups at
a
> time; but I was very surprised to find that the parts that were played
> together didn't sound half as excruciating as I had imagined they would.
>
> Tony
> --
> _________ Tony Pay
> |ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd tony.p@-----.org
> | |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
> tel/fax 01865 553339
>
> ... It's worse than that, it's physics, Jim!
>
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