[NSP] Re: Esoteric tuning relationships

2011-02-08 Thread Christopher.Birch
What I can never understand is WHY the pitch changes. > >Orchestral pitch has become higher because orchestras over the >past couple >of hundred years have tended towards increasing "brightness" >or "brilliance" >of sound. There is a basic psychological >tendency to associate brightness with

[NSP] Re: Esoteric tuning relationships

2011-02-08 Thread Christopher.Birch
Equal temperament of course has its place as does chromaticism, but I think except for keyboard-players, who can't (unless they have split-key harpsichords or such like), even when playing highly chromatic music the best musicians constantly tweak their tuning to produce the most harmonious resu

[NSP] Re: Tuning

2011-02-08 Thread Christopher.Birch
> Also, it's a song and all of the singers I have backed prefer that key. Yes, it would be horribly high in A min unless you were a natural light tenor. > And finally, as an instrumental it makes a loamishly > lovely springboard to dive into P B's P. I don't know PBP but BAM sounds wonderf

[NSP] Tuning/pitch

2011-02-08 Thread Anthony Robb
On 7^th Feb Colin Hill wrote: What I can never understand is WHY the pitch changes. Thanks Paul (Gretton) for a full & entertaining reply from an orchestral point of view. From the point of view of pipes we need to remember that in the 20^th century professional Northumbri

[NSP] Re: Tuning

2011-02-08 Thread Christopher.Birch
> I set my Korg DA 30 to 446 using the calibration button >and take it Sorry to be a nuisance (again!), but what note on the chanter do you tune for zero deviation of the needle? The (nominal) G or the (nominal) B? (or other?) Thanks CB To get on or off this list see list information at http

[NSP] Re: Tuning

2011-02-08 Thread Matt Seattle
On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 10:06 AM, <[1]christopher.bi...@ec.europa.eu> wrote: > Also, it's a song and all of the singers I have backed prefer that key. Yes, it would be horribly high in A min unless you were a natural light tenor. Fair enough. George Welch sings it in

[NSP] Re: Bonny at Morn

2011-02-08 Thread Gibbons, John
I think of the simpler Bewick and the more ornate NM version together as the germ of a short variation set. But they would need some tweaking to fit - the NM version is certainly not hexatonic. John -Original Message- From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] O

[NSP] Re: Tuning/pitch

2011-02-08 Thread Colin
Good points. I suppose as the pipes are essentially a solo instrument, it wouldn't matter what note they sounded provided the things were in tune with themselves. That's essentially true for many rural instruments (I remember making penny whistles from elder wood as a child and goodness knows

[NSP] Re: Tuning/pitch

2011-02-08 Thread GibbonsSoinne
Before the tuning fork was invented, there were pitch pipes. John -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

[NSP] Re: Tuning/pitch

2011-02-08 Thread Colin
Which were tuned with reference to.. Colin Hill - Original Message - From: To: ; Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2011 9:27 PM Subject: [NSP] Re: Tuning/pitch Before the tuning fork was invented, there were pitch pipes. John -- To get on or off this list s

[NSP] Re: Tuning/pitch

2011-02-08 Thread Paul Gretton
In a large number of cities, the tuning standard was taken from the organ (specifically the flue pipes) in the church, the cathedral, or the local ruler's chapel. That pitch in turn tended to be determined by the particular organ-builder - say Silbermann - who "transported" his preferred pitch from