[CAUT] A440, once again...

[Fred Sturm]

On Nov 10, 2009, at 5:06 PM, David Skolnik wrote:

> Jeff, Paul, others -
> I'll agree that there is always a psychological component in all of  
> this... people trying to hide their own uncertainties, inadequacies,  
> deficiencies, but I would be a bit more circumspect in my assertions  
> of dissemblance, were I yous, meaning, don't be so sure.

I agree. And not just wind players. Though it is a rare person who can  
tell 440 from 442, or possibly 441, without any reference, I think a  
lot of those people are conductors. I wouldn't be at all surprised if  
the conductor of the New Mexico Symphony could tell - he is one sharp  
musician.
>
> Looking forward to hanging out for a few weeks at the Performing  
> Arts Library @ Lincoln Center, in order to read the $90 opus Fred  
> recommended:  A History of Performing Pitch: the story of "A" by  
> Bruce Haynes.  I may wait for it to come out as an i-book, or for a  
> Kindle to read the whole thing, but I'm really hoping to get a look  
> at it soon.  I wonder how many of your institutions own a copy in  
> their music libraries.
>
This is not a book to read straight through, at least not for most of  
us. More a book to dip into, look at a bit of one section, a bit of  
another, maybe go back and try to clarify something.
	If you want to find a book like this in a library, worldcat.org is  
the place to look. It has listings of library collections from an  
amazing number of libraries, I think something like 70,000, including  
nearly all university libraries. You can put in your location, and it  
will list libraries that have the book sorted by distance from you.  
There are many copies in Manhattan, including Columbia U and NY Public  
Library.
	Interlibrary loan is one of my favorite perks of the job. We can  
access worldcat through our library portal, and things show up in a  
different format, including a link to request the item on interlibrary  
loan. Click on it, and you go automatically to the ILL request page,  
with a request already filled in with the data. Click submit, and wait  
a week or two for it to show up. Amazing!
> David Skolnik
> Hastings on Hudson, NY

Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu





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