Wives tales ... violin tuning

[Richard Brekne]

    "But that would defeat the purpose of the instrument. Maybe you
    mean  he is tuning his open strings with an electronic tuner,
    however as he plays  he will till play where the pure intervals are,
    and when he plays in ensemble,  he  will instinctively adjust the
    pitches in pure intervals. You call a pure 5th  crappy but to my ear
    it really is beautiful"


Any instrumentalist who has the ability to adjust pitch slightly as on a 
fretless string board has the choice to play <<in tune>> with other 
fixed pitch instrumentalists or drive their own course. In the case of a 
violinist a perfect 5th that perhaps sounds wonderful isolated can sound 
very bad indeed if played against an appropriately clashing interval on 
a piano--- remembering that violinists classically play well sharp of a 
piano to begin with.

The most poignant example I have of this is a recent concert with two 
world class players... Kathryn Stott and Truls Mørk.  From time to time 
the clash between the cellists play and the piano made the piano sound 
simply out of tune... and nothing to do with unisons. Yet when the same 
instrument played solo passages seconds later the thing sounded wonderful.

Seems to me there is no inherent purpose of the viol family instrument 
to play perfect intervals of any sort.  Rather it is simply to make 
beautiful music...which of course includes the ability to blend in --- 
pitch wise also --- with any/all accompanying instruments as best is 
possible.

Cheers
RicB