Re: Concert Pitch (a second try)

[demery]

On Sun, Apr 5, 2009, "Anthony W. Youngman"
<address@hidden> said:

> Okay, we've got more feedback (isn't this fun :-). 

welcome to electronic commiteedom :-)

> 1.64 Concert pitch
> 
> The convention (standardised by ISO 16) that A above middle C represents 
> the note at 440 Hertz. This is commonly notated by the statement 
> "A=440".

slight rewording - 

The Convention (formally affirmed in 1975 as ISO 16) that musical
instruments shall be designed and tuned so that A4 ('A' above middle 'C')
sounds at 440HZ,  Concisely phrased as "A=440".

> There are many other conventions, such as "diapason normal" which was 
> established by French law as "A=435". Many of these conventions have 
> fallen into disuse, although there are orchestras which typically tune 
> to other pitches (usually pitching A slightly higher in order to sound 
> "brighter").

not quite on the mark for me.

Other reference pitches have been informally adopted and even legislated,
most  are now disused, but several orchestras and ensembles specializing
in early music adopt other reference pitches better suited to the replica
instruments they use.  Some modern orchestras perform at slightly higher
pitch (eg A=445) on the theory that "the violins sound brighter"; to the
consternation of the wind players.

Thinking conservativly, maybe we can leave off this last sentance.  Its
true enough, but perhaps inflamatory?

> Regardless of the exact frequency of A, instruments which play the 
> standard frequency upon reading the note A 

only the note A?  hmmmm.  

Sorry to keep beating this horse, but it aint dead yet.  I think the
discussion is much easier to introduce with a little background, something
like this.

Many Orchestral instruments developed as families, varying by fundamental
pitch.  Composers will often take advantage of the contrasting tone colors
of these otherwise similar instruments, players have to be capable of
reading for each of them at sight.  It is challenging to maintain sight
reading skills on several instruments, eg  'C' Clarinet and 'A' clarinet,
where a particular note, say, D4, has different fingerings on each.  The
convention of writing some instruments parts in transposition is employed
to deal with this.

Certain instruments within each family are selected by convention to play
at the pitch that is notated, they are said to be 'in C', or 'at concert
pitch'.  Music for the other menbers of each family is written transcribed
by an appropriate interval so that the fingerings, slide position,
valveing or whatever technique is associated with the written notes will
always be the same, and the piches produced will be as the composer
desired.  The player reading from a transposed part pretends to be playing
an instrument 'in C';  assuming the part was correctly transposed and the
player has the corresponding instrument in hand it all works out.


> Typically, these are instruments 
> with multiple sounding parts such as tuned percussion or strings.

my first thought for 'tuned percussion' is tympani (which jars against the
concept of multiple sounding parts) maybe a more specific example?

  ... such as Marimba, Harp, Viola.

> These are typically instruments with a single 
> sounding part such as brass and woodwind. 

Counter examples are Guitar and Lute, both of which have awkward ranges
and use an octave G clef when noted in staff; often employing tablature (a
sortof transposing notation) to facillitate reading when used in families.
 Do we need this at all?


> See also: "transposing intruments" and wikipedia entry 

for concert pitch 'A440'.

-=-=-=-=-=-

enough in this post
-- 
Dana Emery