orchestral tuning

[Avery Todd]

Ron & List,

Something came up on the CAUT list today where someone said that
trumpets were now being manufactured for A-442. Is this true? Or
is it just an option besides A-440? Just wondering.

Avery

At 09:46 AM 4/12/04, you wrote:
>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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