When will it end?

[Dave Hall]

At 11:52 PM 03/28/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>I can hear it, mostly in the strings. Funny enough, we have Cleveland
>Orchestra players on our faculty, and they THEORETICALLY tune to A440. But
>when there are solo recitals some of them ask for A439 or 438 because
>that's really where they are and what their instruments are set up for.
>The horn players and one oboist are quite adamant about it.
>
>Mark Graham
>Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music
>Berea, Ohio
>
>
>

If everyone in the orchestra has a different opinion of what pitch should be
used, one must assume that chaos reigns.  What happened to "Standard
Orchestra Pitch"?  I have always assumed that it was the pitch selected and
agreed upon by orchestra players the world over.  Are we to go around tuning
every instrument at a different pitch?  Especially when it involves only a
few temperamental kooks with over inflated opinions of their opinions.

I have been asked by artists, many times in the past 40 years of tuning, to
set the pitch at some special value and have tuned every one of them at
A440, and have never received a complaint.  Many complements, a few cash
bonuses, and a lot of repeat business.

Seems to me it would be better for the individual instrumentalist to tune
his or her instrument to a "Standard" than for the rest of the world to
adjust to their whim.

Dave