440 to 415 to 440 slippage - observation

[William E. Darst]

>Date:         Sun, 22 Jan 1995 10:49:41 -0800
>Reply-To: Early Music List <EARLYM-L@AEARN.BITNET>
>Sender: Early Music List <EARLYM-L@AEARN.BITNET>
>From: Alejandro Planchart <ockeghem@MCL.MCL.UCSB.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: 440 to 415 to 440 slippage - observation
>To: Multiple recipients of list EARLYM-L <EARLYM-L@AEARN.BITNET>
>
>On Thu, 19 Jan 1995, Ray Brohinsky wrote:
>
>> For what it is worth, a bassoonist with whom I went to Ithaca (only he
>> graduated) mentioned to me recently that the Boston Philharmonic tunes
>> A=445 _because_ it makes the strings brighter and louder, and the wind
>> players have to adjust, period.
>>
>> raybro
>>
>This reminds  me of  one of  the most spectacular displays of the
>sharpness of Pierre Boulez's ear I have witnessed. At a rehearsal
>in Tanglewood,  where he  was to  conduct Debussy's  *Iberia*  he
>began the first read-through and stopped just a few measures into
>the piece and said "no this is all wrong!" Thought for moment and
>asked the  oboist, "play  A ..." The guy played A [at 445 HZ as I
>was assured later].  Boulez's face lit up, and he said "Aha, that
>is the  problem," he  when *whistled*  back A  at 440 HZ and said
>"tune down to this."  With a mixture of awe and intimidation they
>did tune  down to  it (it  took quite  a while) and the rehearsal
>went on.   Boulez  kept them at A 440 for the entire week and the
>concert (not  necessarily because  of that)  was a stunner.  I am
>not sure  that incident  made him any friends, but like some sort
>of tribal  rite, it did earn him lasting respect from a number of
>the players.
>Alejandro Planchart
>
I thought everyone would enjoy this little anecdote so am reposting it
here...is that anything like composting ?:-)

Bill Darst, RPT
Music Dept
UC Santa Barbara