HT Reaction

[A440A@aol.com]

      Way to go Avery!!!  This is what I meant last year when I said that
techs must be the agent of change.  If we don't do the HT education, it won't
get done!  

Avery writes: 
<<  Two questions I'd like to ask those of you with experience doing this
in orchestral situations. Pertaining to intonation, I've read that singers
and string players tend to gravitate away from ET anyway, left to their
own devices. What about wind players? Do they also? Is it harder for them
to adjust to an HT than it would be for string players? Wouldn't their
instruments be designed and built to play in ET?<<

    
    Orchestral instruments of the string persuasion are not built into any
temperament,  the brass and woodwinds all demand compromises to play in a
variety of keys,  good performers instinctively do this, and the use of HT is
not a problem.  It is all dependant on the players sense of intonation, and I
have found that getting away from ET helps them,  even if they have no
experience with it. 
    The vibrato used on string playing is wider than the Young deviation from
ET, so don't worry about it.  My experience with Youth Orchestras is that the
intonation is better when the concerto piano is in a HT.  

>   The second question is informing people about it.  
     I wouldn't say a word about it for the first time,  to make a big deal
about the difference is to place a variable in the orchestras mind, and unless
they are perfect tobegin with, all blame for intonation will land on the
technician that brought this "change" into the venue.  Let them perform with
it a few times before it becomes a "thing" that the audience is given. 

>>The other alternative is for the conductor, me, or whoever to say something
very short about HT's, either at the beginning of the concert or right
before the piece is played.<<
   If the performers are not comfortable, they will not play well.  To toss
them a new parameter will cause them to search for the differences, thus
losing the true value of musical sense.  Let them get acquainted with the HT's
musically before you try to get them to grasp it intellectually!  
 From the foggy side of San Francisco, 
Regards to all 
Ed Foote