[Shaku] length and tuning question

I wanted to float a question about makers conventions for flute length
and pitch and see if anyone had any thoughts.

I've been playing with some shamisen players and singers lately and I
use different size flutes based on the tuning they use (and since I
don't have 12 flutes they sometimes adjust a little to me as well). I
can usually play up a fifth which based on the scale just means having
an extra meri note (usually tsu chu meri) so we can usually accommodate
each other with the flutes I have.

But one of the shamisen players recently showed me his tuner and it was
interesting that the tuner not only listed the western pitch but the
matching shakuhachi length. Most of the lengths/pitches corresponded to
what I expected, e.g. a 1.8 was associated with D. The list of pitches
on the tuner went through an octave from G#/1.2 to an octave lower
G#/2.4. The lower end confused me because most of the 2.4's I've tried,
including mine, are "A flutes". I realize that there's no necessary
relation between Japanese length units and equal tempered half steps but
the makers seemed to have found a way to make flutes whose fundamental
is close to a standard 440 based western pitch (I know, I know Monty,
specify at what temperature ! :-)), presumably by adjusting the length a
little. And I also understand that the relationship between pitch and
length diverges more with longer flutes.

It seems that between 1.5 and 2.0 most of the flutes I've seen do
correspond pretty well to standard western pitches moving in half steps
from F down to C. So after all that (whew, what a long winded jerk !) my
question is, given the shamisen tuner specs. that I mentioned, is there
a standard makers convention for fundamental pitches all the way down to
2.4 ? If so which of 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 is typically a B or B flat flute
(given that 2.4's are usually A flutes) ? I.e. if the convention is for
2.4's to be A flutes (as opposed to what is listed on the tuner), and
2.0's to be C flutes (as seems to be the case) there are three lengths
for covering 2 pitches in between those.

Thanks for any thoughts,

-- Karl Young
_____________________________________________

List un/subscription information is at:
Received on Tue Jun 22 10:48:56 2010