Posted by Colourful Language on February 28, 2004 at 20:51:46:
Ok, some colleagues and I were discussing the ranges of colour (color for most of you!) it is possible to achieve from a given instrument.
So the question is what instrument(s) has (have) the widest variety of colours available to them? Importantly; can you describe these differences adequately?
This sort of question is difficult to answer so I applaud anyone who tries! : )
My conversation group play a variety of instruments (Orchestral, non-standard and vocal) and the debate was a lively one. We each had opinions concerning which instruments had the widest tonal-range available based on 'standard' playing techniques. It was generally considered, rightly or wrongly, that the String family had a huge amount of documented techniques to master and they came out as 'winners' in our little vote (this was far from unanimous!). I tried to suggest that a virtuoso wind player is quite probably doing as many subtle things as his string friend(!), only it's more likely he can't explain exactly what he does in such precise terms.
Interestingly, I felt 'flexible-intonation' should be an important factor in facilitating an instrument's tonal palette, except we all decided the Piano to be up there near the most 'colourful' of instruments. Hmm...
Hoping this raises further debate to pass on.