Tuning up
The sometimes controversial Ilka Talvi has an interesting piece on tuning and intonation. A couple choice quotes: “Hearing music played absolutely in tune can be almost intoxicating. [N.B. That's exactly how I felt when I heard Karl Leister's spot-on intonation.] Ear training should be far more extensive and every music student should learn to understand the complicated ratios all intervals have;” “Teach the math behind music, it is fascinating.” I’m not sure if the math itself is fascinating, but at the very least it’s interesting. And it unlocks a dimension of playing music that makes it that much more engaging and pleasant. Here’s a great chart we use here at the University of Michigan. If you know what chord you’re playing as well as your chord function, you should have no problem playing in tune–well, that is if the people you are playing with share the same values w/r/t intonation.
Talvi brings up the fact that American orchestras play at A=440 while European orchetras play routinely well above that mark. I happened to experience this first-hand recently when I played with the Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic conducted by Yuri Temirkanov. I had been tipped off by my former teacher Gary Louie that the orchestra played a bit high–he played with the group for their show at the Meyerhoff in Baltimore. Not just “a bit” high. All the way up to A=446! (To answer Talvi’s question about how wind players deal with the inordinately high pitch: as a saxophonist I can just push the mouthpiece in (although I was running out of cork) but I really don’t know how the clarinetists did it. Their barrels looked the same as the ones I see Americans playing on, but my eyes could have been deceiving me. There was too much of a language barrier to get into some shop talk with the Russian clarinetists.)
Having an idea of what I was in for, I wanted to at least prepare myself for the shock of A=446. The night before the concert I actually practiced at that pitch level. Well, I think I was at A=446 though I couldn’t be exactly sure since my Dr. Beat only goes to A=445. The effect was like nothing I’d experienced. It is completely shocking to play that high when you’re accustomed to A=440. My ears began to hurt after about 30 minutes. I’m not kidding. It throws off your entire equilibrium.
We had the dress rehearsal a few hours before the concert. As the clarinet section trickled in, the principal player turned to me and gestured that I push in–way in–saying with a thick Russian accent, “4-4-6.” Playing the solo with the orchestra at A=446 was very different than practicing it by myself. Unlike the reaction I had in the practice room, on stage it didn’t feel funny at all. Actually, it was an experience I won’t soon forget.
