 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Ralph G
Date: 2003-02-18 20:02
Always wondered why the oboe is the reference instrument when orchestras tune. I've been in ensembles where the oboist is all over the place with the A, which makes me wonder why a more "stable" instrument doesn't give the pitch.
I've never played it, but I know it's one ornery, cantankerous SOB of an instrument -- "the ill wind that no one blows good." Any particular reason it does the honors?e
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Author: Michael McC.
Date: 2003-02-18 20:07
I think it is because the oboe is the hardest instrument to change the pitch of. Playing clarinet, it is simple to either pull out or push in on various parts of the instrument, but an oboe must be changed with the embouchure. But it is not always the pitch setter. The best in tune groups I have played with often tune to the tuba. Occasionally the first clarinet will do it, if the oboist's pitch is too varied.
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Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2003-02-18 22:50
Yunz guise need day jobs.
Insert cute emoticon - be creative in placement (*)
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Author: Benny
Date: 2003-02-18 23:05
The oboists' motto: "Better to be sharp than to be out of tune."
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Author: jez
Date: 2003-02-19 00:40
If tuning to an oboe seems strange, imagine playing in a Mozart Requiem where the whole orchestra tunes to a basset-horn!
We used to have a joke in our orchestra:
Why do the XXX Philharmonic tune to an A?
It's the lowest note the oboist can play with any safety.
Fortunately he's moved on.
jez
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Author: beejay
Date: 2003-02-19 11:56
There's an old story about the oboe player who turned up at a rehearsal with Sir Thomas Beecham with a terrible hangover. His A was all over the place. Beecham listened for a few seconds and then told the orchestra: "Ladies and gentlemen, take your pick."
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2003-02-19 14:18
Great comments, stories, with e-motion! Back when I was trying to learn how to play that Ill Wind, I automatically inherited the tuning-pitch job in our {then] little orch. Yes, ?? where in &^%$ is your pitch today!! I soon learned to pull the reed staple about 1/8", give pitch, push it in, then play, SO I wouldn't be left alone at the lower pitch, since all tune high [orchs are against sin I believe]. Did check against my clar also. I found trying Eng Horn much more satisfactory!! Don
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Author: John Kelly - Australia
Date: 2003-02-20 06:06
Nobody tunes to the piano?
It's the first thing I go for if there's one in the band, or the guitar maybe - almost never another horn and I hate the electronic boxes!
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Author: Bob
Date: 2003-02-20 12:45
Recently after almost everyone had tuned up to the "electronic box" the conductor announced that retuning was necessary since someone had previously changed the box's setting.....
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Author: John Kelly - Australia
Date: 2003-02-20 19:23
Bob, we generally don't have conductors in jazz combos [not to say, of course, that cetain individuals don't try] but two or three may have EBs in the one group though, so.............it's a reasonable point you make,the boxes may be calibrated[set/tuned?] differently.
Like I said first up, you can't go past the piano. Any other of you jazz players have thoughts on this?
JK
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Author: Wes
Date: 2003-02-20 22:18
Oboists owe the orchestra an A that is dead on 440. Modern oboe players always have a tuner on their stand for tuning the orchestra, mostly to save arguments. In a good orchestra, the strings or brass don't usually tune sharp to 440. More often than not, they are tuned up before the oboe gives the A so, if the oboe's A is not perfect, everyone knows it.
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