Concert Tuning Stories (was Re: A-442)

[Jim]

On Sat, 7 Sep 1996, Avery Todd wrote:

> Jim,
>    Be brave. Post it. I dare you. <G> Weekends are a good time for that
> kind of thing, anyway.
>
> Avery (hoping to get another interesting/funny thread going)
>
> >
> >If this thread keeps going on, I have one more good story on alternate
> >pitch which I threaten to post if necessary.
> >
> >Jim Coleman, Sr.
>
> Avery Todd

OK, so here it comes.

Back in '72 or '73, I was traveling with Andre Watts who was at that
time a Baldwin Artist.  He was doing the Tchaikowsky Bb piano Concerto
with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta

After I had tuned the piano carefully to A440, the Oboe player came up to
me and said that the piano was low.  I asked him how he knew.  He said
that they had had many arguments in the past about what pitch to use,
so they finally settled on A440 and they bought a small Brown case Strobo-
tuner to use as a standard.  I asked him to bring it out knowing that it
would absolve me of any wrong doing.  To my surprise, it showed that
my A was was 8 cents flat.  I knew that this could not be so, because I
always kept my A fork exactly at A 440.  I would check it frequently with
my large StroboConn which I had at home.  My fork was always tuned to be
accurate at armpit temperature.  That way I knew that if the fork was at
body temperature, it was correct.  I explained this to the gentleman
and explained that if he would go down to the local Music store which sold
Strobotuners, and compare his with theirs, he would find that his had been
tampered with.  You see, there is a little hole in the back where one can
insert a screwdriver and recalibrate the machine.

The gentleman returned later to confirm that indeed their machine had been
tampered with and that it was now correct.  It showed that my A was
exactly on 440.

This story shows the deviant behavior of those who are always trying to
sneak the pitch up to a higher level.  The string players had learned that
the Oboe player would give them a low A during tune-up time, so they
pushed for an electronic standard.  And then, not being satisfied with that,
they faked out the Oboeist by recalibrating his machine.  Well, we exposed
that chicanery.

Jim Coleman, Sr.

PS  This is my last story on alternate pitch.