Hi Phil The pitch was taken down because of recent research done as to the pitch Edvard Grieg himself used. The old wax roles were looked at closely and along with referencing many historical documents, the researches arrived at the conclusion that Grieg usually played around 434-436. This was not uncommon at the time either. If you play his wax roles so as to arrive at a pitch of 442 they sound incredibly fast playing and rather comical. The producers here wanted to reproduce phrase for phrase what Grieg's playing style was. So referring to digital copies of the old wax recordings at the pitch they believe was correct and then reproducing these on Grieg's own piano rather required having the instrument at the same pitch. One could have of course sped up the digital versions of the wax recordings... but that would have made it difficult to emulate Grieg's style. And... they also wanted to get the same tonal pallet that a lower pitch yeilds. I believe the killer octave improved because the lower tension across the board equates to a slight reduction in corresponding down bearing over the entire panel (depending on bearing angle at any given place of course) And because the string plane as a whole represents a less stiff vibrating plane for the panel to deal with. Essentially, the panel becomes more stiff relative to the string plane... only because the string plane itself becomes physically less stiff. Thats my best guess at any rate. If you compare the link to the MP3 to the very short bit with the TV spot you may be able to discern some of the change.. tho the TV spot sound was only done with a camera mounted microphone. Cheers RicB Ric, why did you tune down to 436 in the first place? I can understand the bass being improved, but the killer octave? We have to take your word on it..but why the 24 cent pitch reduction? -Phil Bondi(Fl)
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