Posted by Rick Denney on November 15, 2002 at 14:29:57:
In Reply to: Re: Orchestra tuning posted by js on November 15, 2002 at 12:27:18:
At last, someone with real playing credentials who sees it my way.
I really don't know how a tuba is supposed to tune to an oboe in any case, especially with 22 other opinions of pitch being played at the same time. Few amateurs have any hope of tuning during the tuning note, it seems to me. Invariably, after everyone has tuned to the tuning note, going down the sections reveals wild variation in pitch.
It seems to me that the whole point of the warm-up is to establish a tone concept in your head. Once that concept is there, it's actually not that easy to really retune. So, I leave my slide where it usually is, play, and if I notice a problem, I fix it. That almost never requires moving the main slide.
The wire choir in an orchestra needs the pitch, however, because everything affects tuning on stringed instruments, except the lips. The open strings can be tuned fairly objectively. But for brass, it's too fluid.
And in most amateur bands, most people start blowing their (wrong) notes before the oboist has even stablized the pitch, let alone waiting long enough to actually hear the pitch.
Rick "who thinks most orchestras tune to tell the audience to shut up" Denney