At 10:58 AM -0700 7/7/10, Ryan wrote:
If there's no oboe in the orchestra (pit orchestra), what's the next best
choice to tune to? Muted trumpet? Ha. In all seriousness; Clarinet? Flute?
According to the League of American Orchestras, The penetrating tone of the
oboe is easy for all players to hear, and its ability to sustain pitch is
very
secure.<http://www.americanorchestras.org/utilities/about_the_orchestra.html>
By
those criteria, I should pick the instrument in the group that is easiest to
hear and is most stable. Of course, the volunteer community musician playing
that instrument has to be capable to sustain the pitch!
I doubt there's one clear answer, just wondering what you all do in similar
situations.
Clarinet. Always, band or orchestra. It doesn't carry or cut
through as well as the oboe, so you lose the sound quickly. But the
clarinet's concert "A" is a full, closed-tube note, and therefore
about as stable as you can get. The concert "Bb" is a 7-finger note
and almost as stable. Of course it should be checked against a
meter, in case the individual instrument isn't right on 440 Hz.
Of course oboists pretty much always use a tuning box to check their
A. It isn't something that's implanted at birth! But for a pit
orchestra I would strongly suggest using the keyboard, since we have
to play with it.
Not a sax or flute or brass instrument; too easy to vary the pitch.
And definitely not muted; it can affect the pitch, and very few
players bother to "tune" their mutes. You're worrying about tone
quality. Worry instead about stability.
John
--
John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music
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:john.how...@vt.edu)
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
"We never play anything the same way once." Shelly Manne's definition
of jazz musicians.
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