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Re: Intonation has nothing to do with absolute pitch.

Posted by unclestu52 (D) on February 14, 2007 at 21:53:17

In Reply to: Intonation has nothing to do with absolute pitch. posted by markrohr on February 14, 2007 at 17:32:02:

I still disagree. While most players do not have absolute pitch, those that do and use it, will have better intonation. I used to have decent relative pitch, but it took many, many years of training. Since perfect pitch is innate, those players willing to utilize it can play more together in ensembles.

One player that I know who has perfect pitch is quite open about admitting that very few play in a=440 anymore, and that most seem to prefer a=442, but he can hear it and adapt.

Equal tempered scales were always a man made artifact and never reflect the true nature of frequency doubling for octaves.

Perfect pitch was never a necessity, but pitch and its recognition by your own words is very important in ensemble playing, and that was my point. In fact, that was why the tempered scale was invented, wasn't it(among other reasons)? I do remember using a strobotuner on a piano once early in my music education and was shocked to find it far from being perfect.

I usually always hear problems with orchestras and other ensembles and the fixed pitch of their percussion mallet instruments (xylophones, etc) compared to the strings, etc. Some ensembles have poor precision and intonation and those intonation issues may not be so obvious, but a superb ensemble will usually display such issues of intonation.

For ensemble playing, it still thrills me to hear the precision so many individual players can produce in real time, not just in the timing but in other aspects of music including intonation.

Of course, your opinions may vary.

Stu

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