Re: [Shaku] Re: Concert quality?

Hi All,

Even in Western music the pitch of A has changed over the years and centuries. I have a harmonium from 1885 which is A 455. That's strange. In general however the pitch is going up. Now orchestras tune to A 443 I believe.

Regarding shakuhachi this has caused a problem for 1.8. Most of the old Edo and Meiji 1.8's are pitched somewhere between D and C#. They made them to length not pitch and that's what happened. Now there is a conflict between 1.8 the length and the supposed 1.8 pitch of A=443 which means makers have to produce ever thinner flutes to match that pitch and tone suffers. Because wide bore flutes have a much richer sound and they have to thin the bore to make it conform to that high pitch.

BR

On Monday, November 12, 2007, at 03:08PM, "graham" <ranftg@iinet.net.au> wrote:
>G'day
>
>Given that the Japanese began to import western styles, music etc
>around this time [early?? C20th ] I think this would be a pretty fair assumption.
>
>my 2 c worth.
>
>graham in oz
>
>| I'm not sure exactly when makers started being really concerned with
>| pitch, although I would suspect it was a good bit earlier than the
>| mid-20thC. The Tozan school ~~~whose notation timing and
>| musical ideas are loosely based on Western music, would have picked
>| up the Western scale from the beginning or shortly thereafter.
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Received on Mon Nov 12 16:59 PST 2007