Re: mirafone pitch


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Posted by Jim Andrada on December 04, 2002 at 01:38:35:

In Reply to: mirafone pitch posted by MrKun on December 03, 2002 at 18:06:08:

I'm not sure about Miraphone specifically, but my understanding is that higher pitch is somewhat common in Europe - certainly A = 442 seems to not be unusual.

My wife, a concert pianist originally from Japan swears by A=442 and says she wouldn't be caught dead with a piano pitched at A=440 because it feels "lifeless" to her and doesn't sing. This always leads to amusing run-ins with various piano tuners here in the US who have almost a religion about tuning to A=440. And it seems that the better the tuner, the more strongly they believe in the righteousness of A=440.

We had one really good guy who actually got mad at her and yelled about how tuning to A=442 would destroy her piano because it had been built for A=440. She yelled louder and it was really something to watch. Finally he gave in - but he didn't own a 442 tuning fork so he "guessed". My wife swears that he "guessed" low on purpose.

Just to get her revenge, she called the importer of the piano (a Bechstein grand from Berlin).

The importer got equally excited yelling and screaming about how the piano had been designed (as my wife thought) for A=442 and how the terrible US habit of tuning "too low" would distort her soundboard and ruin her piano in no time and how she should practically cut the fingers off of anyone who dared approach it with an A=440 tuning fork in hand.

And my wife had to go to the trouble of calling the tuner again and getting into another shouting match over it.

I think in the end she volunteered to buy him a 442 reference and he agreed that since she was the customer he'd tune it wherever she wamted even if it would eventually ruin the piano. Mutter mutter grouch, mutter.

And since he's such a good tuner we still use him and the truce seems to be holding. But my wife swears he still sneakily tunes low if she doesn't watch him like a hawk.

Having a reasonable idea about the tolerances and atmospheric variations involved I frankly don't believe the piano really much cares about the difference between A=440 and A=442.

Just passing it on as a funny story and anecdotal evidence that higher pitch is common in some areas outside the US, particularly in Japan and Europe.

At least us "dumb" brass players can just pull the tuning slide and be happy.


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