At 3:53 AM -0500 2/23/08, dhbailey wrote:
Ray Horton wrote:
I said that in case you were going anywhere with "G-string." But
if I read you incorrectly, I apologize.
My daughter is a 31 year-old professional musician. You will get
similar sentiments from _at least_ 90% of the pro violinists you
talk to, at least the ones with good instruments.
And understandably so -- it's easy to ask for something which gives
a unique sound, but it's not always practical. And you can't expect
people with extremely expensive instruments to go doing things which
will render that instrument all but useless for a week or so as it
settles back into standard tuning.
But the point is that it won't!!! What we've been discussing is very
minor tuning variations that will have NO permanent and virtually NO
temporary effect on the instruments at all. And what's been lurking
in back of this discussion--with all due respect to your daughter,
Ray--is players who have been carefully taught that there is one and
only one Right and Proper way to deal with the tool of their trade,
which happens also to be a musical instrument, and it simply 'taint
so!! We've just been going through some wild weather swings that
have affected all the stringed instruments, and I can guarantee that
the tuning variations people are finding when they open their cases
are LESS than most of the scordature we've been discussing!
Most singers are trained the same way, of course, and you've got to
have a baritone with no inhibitions and no fear if he's going to sing
Orff's "Carmina Burana"!
What composers want is one thing -- what all but the most highly
paid orchestras can give them may be something else entirely. :-)
I think Beethoven had the answer to that: "I write the music; you
figure out how to play it!"
John
--
John R. Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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