A great story, Tony, but for reasons of economy, I am only quoting from the part of it which has a bearing on one of my own experiences .....
One of the finest musicians that I ever encountered was Havelock Nelson, who was the Assistant Head of Music for BBC Norther Ireland.
Like yourself, he had an ability to play an accompaniment for any performer without previous knowledge of the piece and, of course, he had asbsolute pitch. Here is an example from a previous posting of mine regarding auditions; but that is not my main story:
I was asked by Havelock if I would be prepared to play in a performance of the Brahms Horn Trio with a youg lady violinist member of the Ulster Orchestra and with Havelock playing piano. Rehearsals in a BBC studio went fine, but when we arrived at the concert venue, we found that the piano was a tone sharp! No problem for me - I could simply have read the music as written for Horn in F, instead of E flat, but there is no way that our young soloist could risk tuning her strings up a whole tone without risking considerable damage to her instrument.
So Havelock opted to transpose that extremely difficult piano part down a tone. What an achievement in itself! But it was made more difficult for him that he was consciously transposing but what he heard coming out was what was written of the copy.
Now that is what I call a masterpiece of performance and of concentration. I have always been glad of the fact that I was never handicapped by having absolute pitch.
A good sense of "relative" pitch yes - but "absolute"? no thank you!
Hs
Originally posted by Tony
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What this seems to indicate is that - at least in my case - 'absolute' or 'perfect' pitch is probably an enhanced memory rather than a genetic inborn 'faculty'......
..... 12 years later I 'lost' my absolute pitch in a car accident where I hit my head on the windscreen and after a few weeks suffering from concussion found that my pitch-sense had ( temporarily) risen by a semitone but finally settled back to normal after about 5 weeks.
Fortunately I now have a sort of 'floating' absolute pitch that I can rely on after about an hour of playing/ rehearsing at the 'new' pitch.
Playing the natural/ valveless horn in concerts or recordings with many and various orchestras or ensembles, I have had to adjust to the following over many years: A 415 ( for german or english baroque music); A 430 as a sort of generalised 'classical' pitch for Haydn, Mozart, early Beethoven; A 438 for late Beethoven; A 421 for 'early Haydn' ( Pinnock where the stated reason for this was the oboe players were not able to find surviving instruments that would play at A 430) : A 392 for e.g. Rameau.
The most 'miserable' and uncomfortable time I have ever had, pitch-wise, was playing at A 421 in the English Concert/ Pinnock Haydn recording project where the pitch was so very close to 'baroque' A 415 that it just felt like we were 'playing sharp' at baroque pitch!
..... 12 years later I 'lost' my absolute pitch in a car accident where I hit my head on the windscreen and after a few weeks suffering from concussion found that my pitch-sense had ( temporarily) risen by a semitone but finally settled back to normal after about 5 weeks.
Fortunately I now have a sort of 'floating' absolute pitch that I can rely on after about an hour of playing/ rehearsing at the 'new' pitch.
Playing the natural/ valveless horn in concerts or recordings with many and various orchestras or ensembles, I have had to adjust to the following over many years: A 415 ( for german or english baroque music); A 430 as a sort of generalised 'classical' pitch for Haydn, Mozart, early Beethoven; A 438 for late Beethoven; A 421 for 'early Haydn' ( Pinnock where the stated reason for this was the oboe players were not able to find surviving instruments that would play at A 430) : A 392 for e.g. Rameau.
The most 'miserable' and uncomfortable time I have ever had, pitch-wise, was playing at A 421 in the English Concert/ Pinnock Haydn recording project where the pitch was so very close to 'baroque' A 415 that it just felt like we were 'playing sharp' at baroque pitch!
Like yourself, he had an ability to play an accompaniment for any performer without previous knowledge of the piece and, of course, he had asbsolute pitch. Here is an example from a previous posting of mine regarding auditions; but that is not my main story:
The BBC were holding auditions in Belfast for a second trombone. At that time (and maybe
still today), being a public corporation, there were certain rules that had to be observed. The
first rule was that there must be an `outside assessor', (that is to say, somebody not
employed by the corporation) on the audition panel; which is how I came to be there. The
second rule, which I am sure has now been abandoned in the interests of both economy and
common sense, was that anyone who applied had to be heard.
The first candidate appeared, clutching a very battered trombone. He was wearing grey flannel
trousers with frayed turn-ups, a white open necked shirt, and white(?) plimsoles. The redness
of his countenance, emphasised by a shock of white hair, suggested that he had `taken a few
jars' to steady his nerves.
The Chairman smiled thinly. “Good afternoon Mr. Mc****. What are you going to play for us?”
To be fair, there isn't a lot of music written for trombone and piano and in fact the solo
repertoire for trombone, apart from novelty items like `Switchback' is very sparse.
“I'm going to play `On Wings of Song’, sir."
“Ah yes. Mendelssohn, of course. And have you a piano part for the accompanist?”
“No, sir. I play this from memory.”
The accompanist, Dr Havelock Nelson, assured the panel that he could play without need of a score and turned to the candidate. “What key would you like it in?”
“B flat, sir.”
Well he would, wouldn't he? I thought to myself. After all, he is playing on a B flat trombone.
Actually, it didn't sound all that bad. His mates at the `Dog and Duck' would probably have
roared their approval. Our soloist stood, triumphant, and waited.
An icy smile this time. “Thank you, Mr. Mc****. And what else would you like to play for us?"
“I didn't bring anything else, sir.”
He didn't even bring that, I thought. All he brought was a trombone.
“So you've nothing else to offer us?”
The candidate could sense that the job was slipping away from him. He tried a desperate last effort.
“I can play you the second verse, if you like ....”
* * *
still today), being a public corporation, there were certain rules that had to be observed. The
first rule was that there must be an `outside assessor', (that is to say, somebody not
employed by the corporation) on the audition panel; which is how I came to be there. The
second rule, which I am sure has now been abandoned in the interests of both economy and
common sense, was that anyone who applied had to be heard.
The first candidate appeared, clutching a very battered trombone. He was wearing grey flannel
trousers with frayed turn-ups, a white open necked shirt, and white(?) plimsoles. The redness
of his countenance, emphasised by a shock of white hair, suggested that he had `taken a few
jars' to steady his nerves.
The Chairman smiled thinly. “Good afternoon Mr. Mc****. What are you going to play for us?”
To be fair, there isn't a lot of music written for trombone and piano and in fact the solo
repertoire for trombone, apart from novelty items like `Switchback' is very sparse.
“I'm going to play `On Wings of Song’, sir."
“Ah yes. Mendelssohn, of course. And have you a piano part for the accompanist?”
“No, sir. I play this from memory.”
The accompanist, Dr Havelock Nelson, assured the panel that he could play without need of a score and turned to the candidate. “What key would you like it in?”
“B flat, sir.”
Well he would, wouldn't he? I thought to myself. After all, he is playing on a B flat trombone.
Actually, it didn't sound all that bad. His mates at the `Dog and Duck' would probably have
roared their approval. Our soloist stood, triumphant, and waited.
An icy smile this time. “Thank you, Mr. Mc****. And what else would you like to play for us?"
“I didn't bring anything else, sir.”
He didn't even bring that, I thought. All he brought was a trombone.
“So you've nothing else to offer us?”
The candidate could sense that the job was slipping away from him. He tried a desperate last effort.
“I can play you the second verse, if you like ....”
* * *
So Havelock opted to transpose that extremely difficult piano part down a tone. What an achievement in itself! But it was made more difficult for him that he was consciously transposing but what he heard coming out was what was written of the copy.
Now that is what I call a masterpiece of performance and of concentration. I have always been glad of the fact that I was never handicapped by having absolute pitch.
A good sense of "relative" pitch yes - but "absolute"? no thank you!
Hs
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