In a message dated 03/29/2000 1:31:06 AM Central Standard Time, owner-pianotech-digest@ptg.org writes: << Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2000 23:12:15 -0500 From: "Phil Bondi" <tito@PhilBondi.com> Subject: When will it end? Today - tonight, I prepared the Steinway for the Vienna Radio Symphony - If they pass through your town, do yourself a favor and go see them - good, young players - the conductor does a great job.. anyway, I prepared the Steinway at A=442, as required in their rider, and I was also instructed to be on stand-by for the performance - lucky me - I got to hear a good symphony orchestra.. But - as the piano player told me - the orchestra is 'compromising' also - they normally tune to A=444. If there is anyone out there who can tell me they hear a difference between an orchestra at 440 or 444, please tell me what you are hearing - I can buy into that String players tend to play sharper in the upper registers - that I will buy - but to hear a real difference in tonality, or emotion? - I don't get it or hear it. When will it end? Rook >> Dear List, For many years I played in a festival orchestra with a concert master from Vienna. He spoke of the steady climb in pitch levels in Europe, and that A444 was hardly the end of it--A446 exists in some places. He was not at all in favor of it, though he did give the string players' explanation. It isn't so much the color of the pitch that they were after, it was the perceived "brightness" or "brilliance" of the stringed instruments, which is noticeably different at higher pitch levels, owing to the increased tension on the strings. His objections were strictly practical--that over time at that level, the wood of the violin would take a "set," so to speak, and eventually deaden, refusing to respond with the "brilliance" desired. The response? Raise it higher, which then works for a time until the whole process would start over. End result? Possibly a very expensive implosion of the instrument! Or players refusing eventually to use their good instruments in the orchestra, and degrading the sound further for THAT reason. His solution was to go back to either A440 or A442, since that seems prevalent, at least in the States, and just let the instruments settle back to that pitch level, then deal with the sound desired in other, less drastic ways. As a bass trombone player, I was always at the limit--no tuning slide left to adjust, but I never had to play higher, which was a blessing. No answers, Phil, just a player's perspective. Stan Ryberg Barrington IL
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