Posted by Masterblaster on June 07, 2003 at 11:22:23:
In Reply to: Re: What do you consider "good intonation?" posted by Frederick J. Young on June 06, 2003 at 19:34:56:
What is the average pitch of a woodwind quintet?
I ask, because it has always seemed to me that the lower you go in pitch,, the more you are able to get away with in terms of bad intonation. Everyone has heard the joke about how the only way to tune two piccolos is to shoot one of them. This is because they play very high.
If a measure of two instruments being out of tune is the beats between the two frequencies they are playing, then two instruments playing at A=880 are going to have much less leeway than two instruments playing three octaves lower at A=110. Since cents of intonation are a function of what octave you are talking about, it seems perfectly reasonable that you shouldn't hold tubists to the same 5 cents you hold a woodwind quintet to. As tubists probably play an average of two octaves lower than a woodwind quintet, it seems to me that 20 cents would be perfectly acceptable.
Please show me the flaw in this logic.
Masterblaster