---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Hi Alan, I'm one of those guys who lurk (mostly) in silence on the list. I don't know about the international agreement, but I think A=442 started with violin soloists who chose that to "stand out" from the orchestra and it (the idea of tuning higher) crept downward (among the section players) to the point all the string players thought it was a good idea. I haven't heard any of my fellow amateur brass players wanting to go to higher pitches. The three community orchestras in which I play generally tune to A=440 or as near to that as the first oboe can get his reed to match the tuner. I believe Yamaha advertises their current (french)horns as being made to A=442. All brass instruments are built a little on the 'high side'. They're meant to be played with the slides pulled a bit. If we need to go lower still, we can always pull the tuning slides and valve slides out a bit more, but once they're in, except for constantly lipping things up, we're out of options. Sort of like it being easier for the barber to cut your hair shorter, but very difficult to get it back longer. You're right about there being different ways to achieve additional brightness for strings-- the right set of strings comes immediately to mind. Years ago when we bought my daughter's cello, we spent the better part of an afternoon with her, her teacher, and whole lot of strings arriving at the right combination of strings to make sure the cello was voiced evenly across the four strings, yielded sufficient brightness for clarity, sufficient darkness for appropriate cello-mellow, and just the right amount of volume. Hope this helps even a little. Best regards, Steve Ramey Alan McCoy <amccoy@mail.ewu.edu> wrote: Does anyone know where to find out about the history of the agreement to standardize pitch at A-440? Like who was present and under what auspices was the agreement reached? Just curious as to whether the current disparity regarding this issue of an "international" standard is American conceit, European amnesia/intransigence or what. Along this line. Is it only the string section pushing for a higher pitch? If a string player wants more brilliance, is there a different way to achieve it other than changing the pitch? Like changing wire gauge? Does the higher pitch actually give a more "brilliant" quality? I'm probably addressing the wrong group here, but I'm still curious about this issue. Alan _______________________________________________ caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/0f/be/2c/95/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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