[Shaku] Pitch journeys

Something funny I found on the web. A viola player
interacting with a composer. (Full story here
http://www.zvonar.com/PamelaGoldsmith/articles/The_Widening_Gap.html
)
Justin

---
A few weeks later, I received a call. "We cannot
rehearse until the week of the performance because the
shakuhachi player will be in Japan." "I need to see
the music, anyway," I replied. Two weeks before the
performance, I arranged that one of my viola students
would pick up the music and bring it to me at his
lesson. The student informed me the composer was
nowhere to be found. I called. "Oh yes, I haven't
written anything down but it's beginning to take shape
in my mind. I will bring over the music as soon as
it's ready." It never appeared.
One week before the performance, we scheduled a
rehearsal at the composer's home. I arrived to find
the composer running out the door, wild-eyed. "I'm
going to the Xerox place so you will have a score to
read from". The sho player arrived, and I watched with
interest as he plugged in a hot plate and proceeded to
direct it at a bundle of pipes in a circle - the sho.
"What are you doing?" "I am warming it up," he
replied. "May I hear an A"? He played a G#. I said,
"no, I need an A." He said, "that IS an A." (I
thought, uh-oh.) "Are you going to transpose?" "No,
"he said, "the sho plays certain notes and certain
chords and that is what I am going to play."
The shakuhachi player arrived, unpacking the bamboo
vertical flute which is played so expressively. "May I
have an A?" I inquired. He played a B flat. I said,
"what was that?" He said, "that is A on this
instrument. It's a little sharp." (uh-oh, I thought).=20
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