Klarinet Archive - Posting 000304.txt from 2004/11

From: Tony Pay <tony.p@-----.org>
Subj: RE: [kl] pitch standard
Date: Sun, 7 Nov 2004 18:43:47 -0500

On 7 Nov, I <tony.p@-----.org> wrote:

> On 7 Nov, orm1ondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya) wrote:
>
> > Forest Aten wrote:
> >
> > > [4 cents] might be "very audibly out of tune" when you are working with
> > > a piano...but it's not significant in an orchestra or band performance
> > > situation.
> >
> > Forest, this is a question, not a challenge or disagreement:
> >
> > Assuming that you had decided that a certain pitch was necessary in a
> > certain ensemble situation --- and putting 'social courtesy' aside,
> > thinking only of the music --- how far "off" would you say that a player
> > could be before the other ensemble members would be justified in
> > commenting that the player was "out of tune"?
>
> You wouldn't say anything like that. The situation is too complex.

I wrote some clarifying stuff after that. But it was certainly unwise of me
to confuse the issue by talking about an extreme situation like 'two
orchestras a quarter of a tone apart'.

Because: that we can play even the standard repertoire so that it sounds in
tune is already something of a miracle. To play that repertoire in tune, we
need to understand something about the harmony involved, and also to
understand how our instruments behave, both in normal circumstances and when
the temperature is low or high.

Frighteningly, we also need colleagues who have the same understanding. You
can't play 'in tune' in an ensemble as a solo endeavour.

Now, I do want to be clear that, by 'understanding', I don't necessarily
mean, 'intellectual understanding'. You can play in tune without ever having
made explicit to yourself the 'rules' of playing in tune.

No, by 'understanding', I mean the sort of understanding that when applied to
a given situation, produces a flexible response that is appropriate to that
situation. It may even be the sort of understanding that a shark has of
water -- totally unconscious, totally masterful.

Lots of this can be learnt -- as we can learn to swim -- by explanation and
enquiry.

I do have to say, though, that no one can come to a proper appreciation of it
without considerable experience of playing with others.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd tony.p@-----.org
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

... I'm not a complete idiot - several parts are missing.

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