Re: Concert Pitch (a second try)

[Anthony W. Youngman]

In message <address@hidden>, Peter Chubb 
<address@hidden> writes
> I reckon it'd be better to split the whole thing  into three entries.
> Whether an instrument transposes or not has nothing to do with concert pitch.

I'm reasonably happy with this, and am happy to wait for Kurt to chime 
in, with the following proviso - I think many of these entries should 
lead the reader towards further research if they need it. I'll comment 
by each entry.
> Here's my rough try at the three entries:
>
> Concert Pitch:
> Notes like a, b, c etc., describe a relationship between themselves,
> not an absolute pitch.  The nature of the relationship is the
> so-called temperament (q.v.).  To be in tune, a group instruments must agree
> on the relationship between pitches *and* the absolute pitch of one of
> the notes.  In recent times that pitch, `concert pitch' has been
> defined as 440Hz for the A above middle C, with other notes arranged
> according to the temperament being used.

Mention that concert pitch is often taken to mean "an agreed standard" 
rather than the official definition, and that there are other standards 
around.
> Temperament: the relationship between different pitches in a scale.
> In the simplest case, an *equal-tempered* system has notes whose
> frequencies are in the ratio of the twelfth root of two.  Such a
> system always sounds out-of-tune, because thirds, fourths and fifths
> are not exact ratios.  However it is widely used because all notes are
> equally spaced, regardless of the starting note of a scale.
>
> Transposing Instrument:  If an instrument is usually notated at a
> pitch other than its sounding pitch (whether out of tradition, or for
> the convenience of the player) it is said to be a *transposing
> instrument.*  Bes and A Clarinets, many brass instruments, and some saxophones
> are transposing instruments.
Where do we put stuff about the meaning of "Bb Trombone in Bb". That 
ought to be in a lilypond manual somewhere. Maybe we should have a 
"Basic Elements of Notation"? But so many people get it wrong (me 
included :-) my colleagues moan at me for marking music as "Bb Trombone" 
when it's in C!), and while I know lilypond makes fixing it dead easy, 
it's a bit of a disaster to plonk some music in front of a player and 
then the rehearsal goes all wonky because the person who laid out the 
music got all the conventions wrong and the player's reading it in the 
wrong pitch!
>

The other comment I'd make is that my rewrite attempted not to stray too 
far from what is currently in the glossary.
> --
> Dr Peter Chubb  http://www.gelato.unsw.edu.au  peterc AT gelato.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.ertos.nicta.com.au           ERTOS within National ICT Australia
> A university is a non-profit organisation only in the sense that it
> spends everything it gets  ... Luca Turin.
Cheers,
Wol
--
Anthony W. Youngman - address@hidden