 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2006-02-01 14:01
On the way into work this morning I heard a portion of Mendelssohn's Overture to Fingal's Cave (a.k.a. "The Hebrides"), on the one classical music station in Washington DC (contrary to Lelia Loban's report in an earlier thread, it hasn't shut down, it just changed frequency a few hundred kilohertz).
I didn't get to hear the credits so I don't know who was performing, but the performance was clearly a "period instruments" job, with strings, oboe and flutes playing 'senza vibrato' and the group overall sounding smaller in size.
What really irked me was that the tempos seemed too fast and the overall pitch level sounded too high --- as if they used the old Top-4- radio trick of spinning the turntable 5% faster to make the songs go quicker and the sound "brighter".
Then I got to wondering whether the orchestra was perhaps tuned to the old "high pitch" (HP) standard of A-455 or thereabouts. Any of you folks who have played 'period' performances, can you comment?
As an aside, I thought the performance sounded awful -- not because of the skill of the performers (which was clearly of a very high level), but because of all the aforementioned 'period performance' aspects. Like a high school orchestra on a caffeine buzz.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2006-02-01 16:22
David -
Pitch has been all over the place. At about the time Mendelssohn wrote "The Hebrides," there was at least some impetus to set A at about 440. The French, in typical intellectually precise fashion, set "Philharmonic Pitch" at 435 in 1859, but, of course, the English immediately set "New Philharmonic Pitch" at 455. See http://www.srm.com/1916/lecture2pitchstandards.html.
This is an impossible situation for players of historical wind instruments or copies of them. Even if you knew what local pitch was on a particular date, the cost of multiple instruments would be unaffordable.
Nearly all period instrument orchestras use the same English players, with a sprinkling from Amsterdam, Basel and various places in Germany and Austria, and they in turn have firmly settled on A-430 for music of the classical period. As far as I know, that is also the pitch they use when playing later music, even though it should probably be a bit higher.
I don't know of any period instrument orchestra that plays above 440, though it would be fascinating to hear English music at New Philharmonic Pitch.
For (much) more than you ever imagined possible, see Bruce Haynes, "A History of Performing Pitch: The Story of A" http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=S51FPmOCAn&isbn=0810841851&itm=1.
Wind and even string instruments were played without vibrato up to 1900. Recordings from that period show vibrato used solely as an ornament. See two fascinating books by Robert Philip, "Early Recordings and Musical Style: Changing Tastes in Instrumental Performance 1900-1950," http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=S51FPmOCAn&isbn=0521607442&itm=1 and "Performing Music in the Age of Recording," http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=S51FPmOCAn&isbn=0300102461&itm=2.
Ken Shaw
Post Edited (2006-02-01 19:38)
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2006-02-01 17:42
Tony Beck was nice enough to email me to correct me on the piece, it was the Scottish Symphony, not the Hebrides -- thanks, Tony! He also mentioned the performance was by the Hanover Band under Ray Goodman, indeed on period instruments.
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Author: William Hughes ★2017
Date: 2006-02-01 20:11
I was glad to see Ken Shaw's response. Last week one evening, during the flurry of Mozart on the classical radio channels, I heard a piece played first by a modern orchestra, then by a period group, and I thought I understood from the show's host that the period group tuned down almost half a step to more closely reflect the pitch Mozart would have intended.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2006-02-01 20:37
I can't figure out why the pitch level I heard on the radio sounded so HIGH to me (no doubt you've figured out that I have nothing like perfect pitch) --- must have been the screechy timbre of the instruments combined with the fast tempi. All the responses so far indicate that, if anything, 'period' pitch would have been LOWER than (or close to) modern pitch -- not higher.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2006-02-01 21:37
William -
415 is 1/2 step below 440. That makes 430 about 40% of a half step below 440.
Ken Shaw
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Author: William Hughes ★2017
Date: 2006-02-02 16:26
Here is an interesting article entitled: A Milder Mozart:
On his 250th birthday, the composer might not recognize the modern, antiseptic performances of his work
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060108/LIVING/601080304/-1/ARCHIVE7
The author comments: "There are several reasons why Mozart's music has come to sound so, well, bloodless. The first has to do with contemporary musical aesthetics and sensibilities. Though period instruments are common, and authentic pitches (Mozart's tuning fork was about a half tone lower than ours) are now used frequently in historic performances, our views of music are still separated from Mozart's by astronomical units."
Post Edited (2006-02-02 16:27)
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Author: Gandalfe
Date: 2006-02-02 16:31
In the topic titled "Harold Wright Interview" we hear the late BSO principle clarinet say that clarinets typically only last ten years and he give his reasons for this. Of course, professionals put in more hours than most of us but, it is a very interesting interview.
Jim and Suzy
Pacifica Big Band
Seattle, Washington
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Author: Gandalfe
Date: 2006-02-02 16:31
In the topic titled "Harold Wright Interview" we hear the late BSO principle clarinet say that clarinets typically only last ten years and he give his reasons for this. Of course, professionals put in more hours than most of us but, it is a very interesting interview.
Jim and Suzy
Pacifica Big Band
Seattle, Washington
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