![]() To compensate for room acoustics, although I don't re-tune at all, I will vary my instrument/string combinations. The tunings of the VPO and JPO clips are about the same. Veteran v.commie Stephen Brivati, aka Buri, who lives in Japan, has told us that the orchestras there use 442. Then check out soloist Mayuko Kamio's opening of the Tchaikovsky VC with the JPO. ![]() I checked this performance against my A-440 tuner I estimate the VPO's tuning here at 442. The paragraph describes the Musikverein's acoustics as "warm" rather than "dark." Also check out this opening of the 2010 New Year concert at the Musikverein - with the VPO playing Johann Strauss Jr.'s overture to Die Fledermaus. Is this the interview? Search on the page for 447. Oscar: "… the Vienna Philharmonic … tune to 447 when they play at the Musikverein … because the hall has such a dark sound …." Every time I install new strings, part of me winces when I have to tighten them to their required pitch. Januat 05:23 PM Janis: "If string players were in the same boat as singers and had only one set of strings to last them their entire lives, we'd see the end of pitch inflation." Most of the people that play in those genres do not really care about sound at all, to them everything is the same and has no effect at all in any way at what frequency they tune, so it is normal that they just go at 440 because it is a "Standard" in their world. The problem in the pop/rock/jazz sector is very simple. but of course, to me it all comes down to the hall and the acoustics in order to set my tunning frequency, I Personally tune at 443 when playing solo most of the time, I find it to be a very balanced frequency for my ear. How dark are the acoustics of the hall, how does the orchestra tune, etc? That comes just as something that is always going to be there, I really wouldn't want everyone tuning at the same frequency, that would be such a catastrophe. Of course one has to tune with the piano if you are playing well, with piano. On one hand you have orchestras like the Vienna Philharmonic, who accordingly to Claudio Abbado in an Interview, they tune to 447 when they play at the Musikverein, the reason for this? Just because the hall has such a dark sound, so they tune to 447 in order to get a more bright sound. I think the whole dilema of tuning at a different frequency ( 430, 440, 443, 445, etc) can be viewed from different points of view. If you don't have time or inclination to read the whole thing, search on the page for 440 - you'll see the part I'm referring to. ![]() The interview with Tebaldi is worth reading in its entirely. Think of the poor singers in these circumstances, forced as they are to stretch their instruments to unaccustomed higher pitches. I wince at the idea of tuning higher than 442. Tebaldi, an artist I very much admire, said that the diapason should not go above 440. Trevor's input reminds me of what singer Renata Tebaldi, 1922-2004, had to say on the subject. In listening to others' performances, I have a bit more tolerance I can listen to a diapason up to 442 - it still sounds like A to my mind - but not higher. If the tuning drops below 440, I notice it right away, and I don't like it. ![]() I start every practice session by tuning to A-440. I am very much opposed to higher tunings. This will extend Janis's point a bit I had completed the message before Janis posted hers. Willcocks wasn't the conductor (he's long since retired). It could have been sung a tone lower and then it would have been much smoother and cleaner. You could hear one or two seeming about to crack under the strain and others were losing their tone. There was one carol in particular, written specifically for the choir I suspect, that sounded uncomfortably high for the boys. Which brings me to the 2010 Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols broadcast live from Kings on Christmas Eve. Some of the orchestra queried this (the non-strings in particular were a little worried) and the conductor had no hesitation in telling us to play in B-flat (same dots on the stave, but a different key-signature, and be careful with the accidentals!) She said to me afterward that her guess was that Willcocks chose B major to show off the stratospheric boy trebles in the Kings College choir. At a carol concert last year (2010) one of the carols we played was an arrangement by David Willcocks of Kings College, Cambridge.
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