To change the subject a little bit, we're all used to tuning to "415",
but how many of you actually use 415 vs 415.3? It's a small difference,
but, in the all-too-common case of university instruments that have to
transpose back and forth without retuning, tuning to 415 leaves you
under 440 - certainly not desirable, especially when much of the
'modern' crowd seems expects 441 or 442 these days.
With that in mind, I usually tune to 415.3, and never get complaints
about the pitch being too high. But it certainly is a small difference.
For that matter, do instrument builders - flutes and recorders I mean -
factory-tune their instruments to 415 or 415.3 typically?
Or am I just splitting hairs here - it certainly is a small difference..
Half the time for concerts I have to tune to 418 anyway, since the stage
lights will cook the harpsichord down before the first chord is played!
And I don't know of any instrument here in Montreal that's stored
somewhere with a stable enough climate to avoid wandering .3Hz...
Curious what others do, and whether it has ever become an issue?
Jonathan
In 06/02/16 09:01 PM, Andrew Bernard wrote:
> Hi Theodore,
>
> I don’t think you can really compare fingering and pitch standards in
> the one basket. Fingering - a matter for the performer, wth many
> factors. Pitch - a standard necessary to allow musicians to play
> together, and to enable scaling design and so on. While playing high
> as per much Italian practice, or low as per other European practice
> is a matter of taste and the instruments you have, you all need to
> tune together. Nobody has ever suggested 415 was a broad historical
> standard. But since many instruments tend to sound good at lower
> pitches, 415 became established in modern times because 415.3 is
> exactly one equal tempered semitone below modern concert standard
> pitch 440. Apart from anything else this makes transposing
> harpsichords simple and effective. 392 is also good because it is an
> ET tone lower than 440. If you want to play ensemble music, then
> using 415 seems to me to be a useful compromise for something
> generally a little lower than 440. I never thought anybody was under
> the illusion that this was an international concert pitch standard in
> the harpsichord era.
>
> Andrew
--
Jonathan Addleman - http://www.redowl.ca
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