how high(low) do you go?

[Ron Nossaman]

>Conversely, when tuning to a pipe organ, as mentioned, I find that
>typically they are 15-20 cents low, although I have one within 4 cents
>(sometimes).  My question here is more oriented to the use of 'other'
>instruments when tuned this low....i.e., how low can OTHER instruments be
>expected to 'play along' with tunings that are below A-440?  5 cents? 10
>cents?  15 cents?  Just how long ARE the mouth pieces of most wind
>instruments?  Can they be expected to elongate themselves as much as 18
>cents to match a pipe organ and still be playable?   Any wind players out
>there?
>
>Looking for parameters...
>
>Mark Potter
>bases-loaded@juno.com	


The pipe organ part is easy, as far as I'm concerned. The piano will be
tuned at 440, or they call another tuner. I'm not about to compromise a
relatively stable instrument a quarter semitone to accommodate a wildly
unstable one that will be a quarter semitone out of tune in the OTHER
direction next week - unless someone opens the door before then, or it
clouds up. If they insist on playing the organ and piano together and
expect them to be in some semblance of tune together, they can get the
organ tuned to 440 and build a perfect climate control to keep it there.
Perhaps a 49 heater bar, 23 tank Sanctuary-Chaser. That would make life
simpler. Even when they do get the organ tuned, pipe organ tuners in this
area have long ago ceased to even attempt to tune at pitch, and just touch
them up where they are. Then they inform the church administration to have
the piano tuned to the organ, wherever the blazes that is. No me. I'll
abuse the administration before I'll abuse the piano. I'm going to attempt
to keep the piano in the ragged vicinity of international standard pitch.
The cleverly subtle reasoning and defense behind this attitude lies buried
deep in the word "standard", and I feel I should at least attempt to have
one. With 3% of the customers generating 85% of the misery, I'm going to
attempt to maintain a 97% work load. Someone else can have my 3%.

Ron N