Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2016-07-20 07:19
Wes wrote:
> Often, I hear a note and know what it is because it is the same
> note that a known phrase starts on. For example, C# because
> that is the first note of the flute solo of "Afternoon of a
> Fawn". Or E because that is the first solo note of the Mozart
> Concerto.
But what C# or E do you hear? If you listen carefully (or even not so carefully) to recordings of those pieces, they will not all be exactly the same C# or E - different orchestras tune to different standards.
> Sometimes, a note can be identified because of it's
> character not because of it's pitch, such as the low D on a
> flute, as Mr. Blumberg indicated with reference to the
> clarinet.
>
Again, different instruments will produce different pitch variants of those notes - especially if you're using your memory of an extreme note of an instrument's compass. Low E on a clarinet or a low D on a flute will be slightly flat to the rest of the instrument unless the player is deliberately compensating. Sure, I can probably recognize a low E by its timbre if a clarinet is playing it - but it may be either a concert E, D or C# (I probably couldn't recognize a note played on an Eb clarinet - it's too different in timbre from the soprano clarinets).
> A is a memory note because I've played it so often on the oboe
> for tuning and I can sing it with no reference if I am actively
> playing in an orchestra, although I could not sing an Eb with
> no reference.
>
This puzzles me - if you know what an A sounds like, Eb is a diminished fifth higher, which is an interval that can be learned even without perfect pitch.
And, yet again (I know I sound like a broken record), what A are you able to sing? 440? 442? The tuning note you play that becomes so familiar is not necessarily the same one an oboist in another part of the world learns to accept as A.
> When I studied some with the late Warne Marsh, one of his
> exercises was to learn to identify by ear the various triads,
> major, minor, augmented, diminished, and their inversions when
> someone else played them on the piano. That turned out to be
> easier than one would think.
Assuming you mean accurately naming the absolute pitches, I've always regarded this as something of a parlor trick. I'm not sure what it's useful for that isn't equally well served by a strong sense of relative pitch. And in what practical music setting do you need to be able to identify randomly selected pitches or chords by their absolute pitches?
Karl
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The Clarinet BBoard
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