A-440 Policy?

[David Skolnik]

Newton, Newton, Newton, Newton, Newton, and the rest of you-

I fear a number of essential points are being missed here in the service of
venting  over a different issue, namely administrative abuse... the same
issue Bob Grijalva started to address a few days ago in his 'proposal for
new staff' thread.   The issue here is not how long it takes to alter
pitch, or how much it costs, or who should pay.  The real issues are the
"sanctity" of A-440, and the acceptable mechanical tolerance of the modern
piano.   Both of these topics have, I think, been addressed previously on
this list, or on pianotech.  I'm too tired to check right now.  440 did not
come from Mt. Sinai.  The politics of 440 is an interesting and arbitrary
story.   
440 is politics and psychology.  Why is there a propensity for elevated
pitch, and how much elevation has to take place before a reaction occurs?
What are the forces that propel high pitch or inhibit its proliferation?  I
believe Ken's statement :

	It is, after all, easily within the tuning range of all orchestra
instruments as long 	as the oboe players bring reeds that are constructed
for this standard 	pitch

to be misguided  By the time a player is at the level  to be a part of an
internationally recognized ensemble, he, or she, does not need a tuning
fork to know if they are at pitch or not.  They don't listen to pitch as
much as feel it.  The change Ken suggests would be as radical and
disturbing as would be suffered by any piano in a pitch altering situation.
 Further, don't you think that the pitch a professional orchestra plays at
goes a long way in defining its distinctive personality?   Just because it
says "International Pitch" don't make it so.

>From a mechanical point of view there are only two questions.   How much
pitch elevation can a concert piano safely sustain, and, are there any
short or long term negative effects from such alteration  The first part of
the question should be addressed by someone who knows.  I do not.  The
second is where I believe the problem resides.  Convenience, budget, and
energy aside, I doubt that the occasional pitch raise places any more
tension on the system than does a bad summer.  What will change in a pitch
alteration however is the string leveling and thus the open string voicing.
 I have seen this happen.  Either in its raised or restored state, there is
no assurance that the strings will be in the exact same place in relation
to the agraffe.  If strings were pulled level, this could make a
significant difference.

This is the most significant effect I can think of.  OK Newton,  I'm ready
for you...sort of.

David Skolnik
Columbia University
New York



At 09:12 PM 10/26/2000 -0400, you wrote:
>> few viable options but to comply, although, you are certainly 
>> entitled to be compensated for your time and effort.
>
>Get the fire retarders out.
>
>Ignore it.  The department, who's inventory is the piano and
>pays the salary of the technician, is not a signatory to the
>contract.  I doubt there is a department around that is
>willing to give up a day and a half, at least, of their
>salary line employee.  If the order comes, in writing, from
>the chair person then orders is orders but once they realize
>they will loose five or more department tunings the can get
>more stubborn than I.
>
>Time is money, time is energy and time is not being given to
>the students who deserve it more.
>
>		Newton
>