Klarinet Archive - Posting 000313.txt from 2010/10

From: Tony Pay <tony.p@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] We are missing an instrument
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2010 11:01:34 -0400

On 29 October 2010, at 15:57, Martin Baxter wrote:

> I've yet to meet a violin section that can get down that far [A=435] and stay there.

On 30 Oct 2010, at 08:17, Keith Bowen wrote:

> Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment?

On 30 Oct 2010, at 15:19, Martin Baxter wrote:

> Good though they are they do not play at 435, or at least they didn't; I had a friend in it.

I once had a friend in it, too:-)

Actually, it's the other way around: we don't nowadays play much at A=435, though we used to. (It was the 'early romantic pitch' decided on by Norrington's now defunct LCP.) There's an issue with the original instruments that some people own; it's difficult to find, say, original French clarinets that go at A=435, so when we depart from the classical A=430 standard we mostly play higher, A=437 or A=438 -- which eg the bassoons want to resist, because their instruments want to sit lower than ours. It's a difficulty.

I don't understand what you write about you being "yet to meet a violin section that can get down that far [A=435] and stay there." The strings of the OAE, the AAM, and other orchestras very kindly do what they're told they have to do; and, what's more, constantly check with the oboe that they're still doing it.

And anyway we routinely play classical music at A=430, as I said.

So that sounds like nonsense to me. Who was your friend?

Tony
--

Tony Pay
79 Southmoor Rd
Oxford OX2 6RE
tel/fax +44 1865 553339
mobile +44 7790 532980
tony.p@-----.org

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