I think we're talking past each other. Distance cannot change pitch of an instrument. Whether the instrument is one foot away or one mile away, the pitch will remain the same.
The only way you can alter the pitch is by changing the temperature of the air as sound travels through it, or the air pressure, or if you're moving yourself. -William -----Original Message----- From: Hans Pizka <[email protected]> To: The Horn List <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, May 29, 2011 3:50 pm Subject: Re: [Hornlist] offstage brass How many times have you folks done off stage calls ??? Really ? Well, it is a big difference, playing off stage e.g. in a stair way leading to the stage, where the temperature could be much lower indeed. But this is not the case in a regular concert house or theatre under normal circumstances. Or playing off stage in an operatic performance, means playing the call on the stage, while the orchestra sits in the pit. When we played any sort of stage calls from Il Trovatore to Long Call, we had to tune the horn higher because of the distance, just because of the distance. A modern opera production has the stage not filled with curtains & much decoration but prefers a rather empty stage with rather Shakespearean reduced deco. We experimented a lot with this, depending on the distance. When the call was just left or right to the stage opening the pitch adjustment was minimal, but some calls come from the deeper ground of the stage, where we had to adjust more. Even the stage music at the end of first act of Mozarts Don Giovanni, where we had to play on a high gallery in the middle of the stage but several meters verse the scenes background, required pitch adjustment for all players. The facts which create such effects are very interesting. But it is also fact, that the distance makes the difference in pitch as well as the difference in synchronism. If you play distant from the main group, means more distant to the audience, you have to "anticipate" every entrance to sound together with the main body. It is not easy. Another thing I watched on TV this morning: Mozarts Missa in C-minor, in a festive concert in the Alte Kapelle in historic Regensburg. It was a replay of a "live" performance two years ago. But surprise. Just before the Benedictus, the conductor Choir Director Domkapellmeister Buechner pointed to his wrist watch, to tell the TV recording crew, it were time to proceed. Ha-ha-, they said LIVE ????? In reality, it was just video recorded with some live spots integrated. Ho-ho. ######################################################### Am 29.05.2011 um 19:58 schrieb Curt Austin: > I didn't think frequency was affected by distance, and I've confirmed this with a little online research. A complex sound may sound lower since high frequencies are attenuated more, but this is an affect on timbre, not pitch. > > If there is a pitch difference, it could be position of the hand - if a horn player is standing offstage, he might alter is normal hand position in such a way that tends towards flat. Or it could be some psychological affect - something that makes us want to play lower pitches when away from the group. Maybe we figure we should sound more muffled, and jam our hands in the bell. Or we normally force ourselves up a bit without knowing it, but away from the group, we lose the connection, and go flat. Or the way onstage musicians perceive pitch "at a distance" could be the factor. > > Seemingly, an easy thing to investigate. Interesting. > > Curt Austin > > On May 29, 2011, at 1:47 PM, Dan Beeker wrote: > >> Surely there must be more to it than "because of the distance". Does >> that mean the listener in the back of the auditorium hears things >> flatter than the patron in the front row? Loss of higher harmonics due >> to stage curtains etc. might make it sound flatter (total conjecture on >> my part). Just curious. Any acoustics people out there have an explanation? >> >> Dan Beeker >> >> On 5/29/11 1:00 PM, [email protected] wrote: >>> Message: 11 >>> Date: Sun, 29 May 2011 16:22:54 +0200 >>> From: Hans Pizka<[email protected]> >>> Subject: Re: [Hornlist] offstage brass >>> To: The Horn List<[email protected]> >>> Message-ID:<[email protected]> >>> Content-Type: text/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII >>> >>> Bob, welcome in Germany, >>> >>> the off stage brass sounds flat to the player on stage because of the distance. But it is not much. >>> So the off stage players adjust the main tuning slide a bit, just a bit (1/4" perhaps). >>> >>> Regards >>> >>> Hans >> >> -- >> Dan Beeker >> >> _______________________________________________ >> post: [email protected] >> unsubscribe or set options at >> https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/curtissaustin%40me.com > > _______________________________________________ > post: [email protected] > unsubscribe or set options at > https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/hpizka%40me.com _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/valkhorn%40aol.com _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
