A-442 (was Re: Fork or Float)

[Les Smith]

Hi, Avery. I don't know anout A-442, but a couple of years ago I was asked
to tune a piano to A-441. The instrument in question was an S&S D that I
had been tuning at least once a month for the last ten or eleven years,
always to A-440. The piano and I had become good friends and because it
was kept in top shape and tuned so frequently, it almost tuned itself.
Anyway, the music director made a big deal about what a great ear he had
and how he wouldn't accept anything less than an A-441 tuning. When he
asked me if I could tune it to A-441 I told him, "No problem". When I was
finished he came over, pulled a little electronic gizmo out of his pocket
and checked the A which read 441. After playing the piano he was so elated
that he paid me twice my standard fee. What he never knew was that I tuned
my "friend" to A-440 the way I always did. Then, when I was finished, I
went back to the A and tweaked it up one cps to 441. :))))))))

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net



On Thu, 5 Sep 1996, Avery Todd wrote:

> List,
>    And then we get into the discussion about tuning to A-442, which,
> thankfully, I am not asked to do around here. Except once for the Houston
> Symphony.
>    Do many of you get asked to do that? I've heard that some orchestras
> have gone so much even above 442 that some of the instrumentalists have had
> to have special instruments built to be able to tune to it!
>
> Avery
>
> >On Wed, 4 Sep 1996, Aaron Bousel wrote:
> >
> >>An anecdote:
> >> <snip big section> ...
> >> I've never gotten a complaint about a piano being too sharp, though if it's
> >>flat, I hear about it.
> >>
> >>Aaron Bousel
> >>
> >
> >Aaron,
> >
>   For instruments, especially
> >winds, pitch is critical, for many of them have no lattitude on the
> >"sharp" side--  it is not unusual for a trumpet to be dead on 440 with
> >the tuning slide all the way "in," with no option to tune any sharper.
> >They have trouble playing with a normally tuned piano, because the
> >higher notes of the piano are stretched higher than the higher notes of
> >the trumpet.  This is even more pronounced with clarinets and flutes--
> >they must tune sharp of 440 in order to sound best in tune with a piano.
> >All of these instruments have no trouble tuning flat though, by
> >elongation or pulling out a tuning slide.  So my conclusion is, to be
> >safe, never tune sharp and opt for flat for purposes of "floating."  In
> >the case of playing with winds, flat may always be better.
> >
> >Bill Bailer
>
> _____________________________________
> Avery Todd, RPT
> Moores School of Music
> University of Houston
> Houston, TX 77204-4893
> 713-743-3226
> atodd@uh.edu
> _____________________________________
>
>
>