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<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><EM>Susan:</EM></FONT></FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2> When called for bad intonation, a certain type of string student would
start furiously tuning the open strings. My teacher would say, "That's only four
notes ..."<BR></FONT><FONT color=#000080 size=2><STRONG>I think you are missing
the point . . . it is a valid anecdote though.</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> I was told to "check it with the open string"
when I was 10. By the time I was 20, I was able to play in tune when the strings
were a little off, with effort. By the time I was 25 I would play in tune when
the strings were a little off without effort.<BR><FONT face="Times New Roman"
color=#000080><STRONG>Well, it sounds like to me you should have continued to
listen to your open strings. How do you know you are in-tune if you never listen
to your other strings (I do not mean physically play them)? I am really
interested, it seems like you know something that the rest of the string world
has missed out on.</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> This theory of open-string resonance dictating
interval size -- sorry, I don't see it this way. How about the key of B major,
for instance?<BR><STRONG><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000080>Open strings
do not dictate interval size . . . that was dictated a very long time ago by
math and physics. Open strings help in note placement. We have already talked
about how G-B can either be placed against the G-string or the E-string, but not
both. A major 3rd is a major 3rd regardless of the other open
strings.</FONT></STRONG></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><STRONG><FONT face="Times New Roman"
color=#000080>You are confusing interval size and strings' natural
variation in key color. Well temperaments on the piano have color changes in
different key areas. A similar thing happens with strings, but it is based on
degrees of resonance rather that degrees of tempered intervals: D-Major is a
very resonant key on violin . . . D flat-Major is not. But musicians have
known about this for hundreds of years, so this is nothing new. One of
Paganini's concertos calls for the orchestra to play in Dflat, the soloist plays
in D with the violin tuned down a half step. The result is that the solo part is
much more brilliant than the subdued orchestra part.
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> And who may these string players be, pray?
Students, perhaps? I certainly have said that many string players do not temper
anything, melodically or otherwise -- but all of them? I beg leave to
differ!<BR></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2><STRONG><FONT face="Times New Roman"
color=#000080>No Susan, we have not been talking about students. But maybe that
is part of the problem: I am talking about a professional standard. That would
certainly explain some of the confusion. Between my wife and myself, we have
studied or had master classes with almost all of the top quartets. From these
experiences I have learned that [just] intonation is a very important issue;
they seem to have absolutely no tolerance for beating intervals. Maybe
you could listen to a few recordings?</FONT></STRONG></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> Bradley, do you really like playing skimpy
little beatless major thirds? And wide flabby beatless minor thirds?
Really? In a dominant chord, you like the leading tone way low, do you?
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000080 size=2><STRONG>YES Susan, I have always been encouraged
to play in-tune. Adding beats is an additional tool that I have
learned to use to expand my musical expression: especially the shading of
harmonic vocabulary. But it is not the standard from which we begin. I do
apologize, but I completely disagree with you, and apparently so do most
professionals. But please don't take it the wrong way, it took a long time for
EQT to be accepted in the piano community. Who knows, maybe in a hundred years
string players will be playing exactly how you have
suggested.</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#000080 size=2>Until then,</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#000080 size=2>Bradley M. Snook</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
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