Sándor Márai
Everyone loves the sound of an orchestra tuning up—right? The audience at the Concert for Bangla Desh liked Ravi Shankar's peeps tuning up so much that they applauded, or so the story goes. My proposal: a piece for those orchestral instruments that can easily be retuned (which as far as I know is just strings without keyboards) consisting entirely of a succession of various tunings, different for different sections, to which the members are to tune their instruments, each at his or her own pace, without any regard for keeping quiet. I thought, on the basis of this review (that, at the time I read it first, I thought a bit unfair) that "scordatura" referred to the practice of playing while manipulating a tuning peg (the one for the string being played upon, natch), since IIRC Friedlander does do that and simply playing in an alternate tuning (what wikipedia claims scordatura is) isn't of itself "freaky-dirty". Anyway, I envision a doing-that-and-harmonics solo.
Comments
on 2006-12-27 21:56:48.0, Shawn commented:
All the brass (with the possible exception of the french horn) can be retuned about as easily as the strings; just keep the tubes greased and they can be adjusted with possibly less effort than turning a peg on a violin. The trombone has only one tube to slide; trumpet, baritone and tuba have 3, one for each valve.
and, further, on 2006-12-28 11:22:30.0, Kriston commented:
A nightmare from my short-lived orchestra days: While the orchestra tunes to the oboe, rendering my absolute intunedness meaningless since the orchestra's tuning relative to me, I always feared that someone in the audience possessing acute absolute pitch would call me out. I support Ben's design for distributed burden.
and, further, on 2007-01-03 6:56:58.0, Matt Weiner commented:
"Chinary Ung" is an exceptionally awesome name.