[CAUT] Non-440 tuning request

[Jeff Tanner]

Fred,
You describe the "sharpest they can be tuned". That slide can go out as well, no?  You have described what I expected - 441 or higher to be too high for winds. But this was a situation where 440 was too low.

And, I've just got to wonder, since the scale of the piano can stretch fairly well outside the middle octave - say 1.5 to 2 cents at the first overtone/second partial of A4, even more in higher octaves, where are we when we move the middle of the piano upward to 441 or 442 and how does that tune with the overtones of the wind instrument which is "supposed to be" designed for 440?

You hit my point on the head. I don't care what the pitch is, but it needs to stay the same. Since manufacturers design the piano scale for 440, that seems a good place to keep it. Likewise, our EDTs have to be recalculated to tune at anything different.

>From our own PTG literature and, I assume, Steinway's owner's manual: 

"Your Steinway piano was tuned many times before it left our factory. It was tuned to and should be maintained at A440 pitch. This is the internationally accepted standard and the standard for which all Steinway pianos are engineered."

"Engineered" is the key word there. Pianos are engineered for a certain pitch and that deserves some respect from those who can't play in tune.
Jeff

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Fred Sturm 
  To: College & University Technicians 
  Sent: Saturday, February 20, 2010 3:50 PM
  Subject: Re: [CAUT] Non-440 tuning request




  On Feb 20, 2010, at 1:02 PM, Jeff Tanner wrote:


    Third, why does the clarinet go sharp as it warms up? Don't all other wind instruments go flat?


  Wind instruments go sharp when they warm up. It has to do with the air column within the instrument, propagating waves faster. (Sound waves move faster in warm air than cool). Not the size change, if any, of the instrument. True of organs as well as brass and woodwinds. Metal strings, by contrast, go flat when they warm. The opposition of those effects has always been a problem when temperature is unstable.
  With respect to a woodwind being able to tune, that is true within small parameters. The instrument is in best tune with itself if there aren't a lot of adjustments made (in the way of adding a gap between joints, or pushing them flush). Once they are flush, that is the sharpest they can be tuned, other than with embouchure, and there are limits to what embouchure can do (that word referring to what you do with your lips, air pressure, direction, and the like). Well, to be precise, as another option you can use a different joint (on a clarinet or flute or brass) and alter the reed length (on an oboe), but that changes the tuning relationships within the instrument (maybe you get A right on, but other notes are off in different directions).
  Most wind players always "warm up" before a performance. And this is not just a matter of getting the lips and fingers active, it is a matter of blowing air through the instrument so that it becomes warm, as warm as it is going to be when it has been played a while. If they have long rests before coming in, often they hold their instruments under their arms, against their bodies, to keep them warm (not so easy with the tuba). If the weather is cold, it is hard to keep the instrument at the same temperature.
  I don't argue with wind players, just try to accommodate their requests. They know their own instruments, and experience has told them what works. 441 is no big deal (especially if you are already raising pitch by 6-12 cents). If it is a question of causing trouble to some other group or performer afterwards, then I might question it, though 441 will suit just about anyone. A good compromise between 440 and 442.
  I frankly don't see any danger of pitch going through the roof, in spite of the paranoia that has been spouted on the subject for many, many decades. We are quite stable at 440-445, and have been there for maybe a century. Differences of opinion within that range are not a big deal, though they do cause minor problems. 
  "if we allow the non-fixed pitch musicians request non-440 tunings, there would be no standard to keep it from just flying away." 
  Well, I doubt very much that our ability to control things as piano technicians is very important within the musical world. We don't have the power to "allow" nor to "prevent." If there are practical, logistical problems associated with pitch changes, they will cost money to solve (ie, we should charge for our time), and people will pay or they won't pay. Or they will please some and displease others, and we should let those people fight it out amongst themselves.
  All that said, in "my" concert hall, "my" pianos stay at fixed pitch of 440, unless the chair should feel the need to tell me differently. In this case, it is a question of tuning stability of the instruments. I don't care if it is 440, 441, 442, 445, as long as it stays the same. With possible exceptions for something "really important" (which is where the chair might tell me to do something different). And I think all the musicians in the department are quite happy with that stable pitch. 
  So I don't see any problem with politely declining to accede to a request for a change of pitch. But I would do so based on the stability of the instrument, not on holding the line on standards.

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









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