orchestral tuning

[Ron Koval]

I changed the subject heading as this is beginning to splinter...

This came before:

There are no orchestral fixed pitch
>instruments, except in the percussion section.

Ok maybe I am using the wrong term.  But what are the holes for in the
bassoon? To give a pitch? Why is that not called a fixed pitch?  Because
the player can "bend" it?   What term should be used then, to
distinguish the pre determined pitch of the bassoon and the variable
pitch of the trombone?    Also I would like to know how your bassoon was
actually made.  Did the  craftsperson sit at a bench and file the holes
so that the pitch agreed with an electronic tuning machine?  If so then
your bassoon is in ET. Or if not then what pitches were designed will
tell the anti ET trio what to say about anti ET
<end>

When you hear a beginning band play a piece, can you hear how out of tune 
they play?  That is pretty much the factory setting of pitch on all those 
instruments.  It's not so much a matter that a player CAN bend the pitch, 
but that a performer MUST be in control of the pitch, via embouchure, or 
whatever means they have to blend with what is going on around them.  As a 
player develps, they get quicker at putting the pitch where they want it to 
be.  The holes and keys only serve to get the pitch in the ballpark.  Then 
it is up to the player to find the righ spot for the note.

I know what you are talking about comparing a unfretted instrument or 
trombone with a keyed or valved instrument, but I'm not sure of the 
terminology.  I was surprise when I was told by the Fox bassoon person that 
their bassoon used a modified just scale.  He insisted that ET would just 
sound bad.  It's on the website that I posted about before.  It still seems 
to me that putting them in ET would make corrections easier.  It may well be 
an engineering problem that influenced the decision.

Ron Koval

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