When will it end?

[Richard Brekne]

I am not really sure about the leanings of violin players, but I dont necessarilly
see that what you state is contrary to an overall movement towards faster beating
intervals.... ie tenser music... or brighter sound. Could be that violin players do
as you say.. but perhaps less then they did 50 years ago.

I aggree that it is difficult to sense this difference in brightness directly. It is
perhaps necessary to hear the same piece played at the two different pitches one
right after another for one to be able to develope this sense in a direct way. Still,
there are other forces at work then that of direct sensation.

I ran across an interesting article written by a psychologist / social anthropologist
some years back that dealt with this exact subject matter. He correlated the general
raise of concert pitch throughout the years in western music to things like the
increase in stress the modern world presents us. I cant remember much of it but it
was an interesting enough take.

Lots of this kind of thing touch on the subconcious. Personally I think its all a big
pain in the patootey. Lets all settle on 440 and be done with it. Perhaps we should
start feeding these speed freaks a bit of Valium or something... grin.

Phil Bondi wrote:

> Richard wrote:
>
> > In general the higher the concert pitch.. the more "tense" the sound
> > colour is. At
> > least thats how I would word it. Just as say... beating thirds get quicker and
> > quicker as you progress upwards raising concert pitch will increase
> > the speed of all
> > beating intervals.
>
> I agree that faster beating 3rds should add tenseness to the music - but don't
> String players tend to play more of a pure 3rd than a 'tempered' 3rd anyway?...
> and  tuning at a higher Reference Pitch, the overall perception is that the music
> is 'brighter' - I just don't hear it or feel it.
>
> Maybe I need to be 'emotionally rescued'?!?!?
>
> Rook

--
Richard Brekne
Associate PTG, N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway