Musical questions and answers thread

[BBMmk2]

I always found it quite fascinating when I was a child, seeing how the piano tuner did his work.

[Pulcinella]

I always found it quite fascinating when I was a child, seeing how the piano tuner did his work.

I used to help our school music master tune the parish church organ from time to time: my role was to hold the note down while he fiddled (no pun intended) with the lip on the metal pipes or the length adjustment on the wooden ones.
I too enjoyed watching the piano tuner at work at home.

[Constantbee]

I find piano tuning interesting and I wondered if others might also enjoy this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPVgDm9x8kk

That was good gradus I am always quite happy to leave this sort of thing to somebody else, though. It does seem to be well rewarded work if you can do it, though. We've got a great tuner, but every time I phone him to make an appointment he's on his holidays

You might like this, too. It's a man talking about tuning his clavichord and has a somewhat soporific effect on me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz75ZErVNGM&t=1258s

[gradus]

That was good gradus I am always quite happy to leave this sort of thing to somebody else, though. It does seem to be well rewarded work if you can do it, though. We've got a great tuner, but every time I phone him to make an appointment he's on his holidays

You might like this, too. It's a man talking about tuning his clavichord and has a somewhat soporific effect on me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz75ZErVNGM&t=1258s

Many thanks for the posting, it led me on to several other related videos and 90 minutes spent watching them!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

If (say) we take one A as 440 Hz, then the octave higher will be 880 Hz, implying an 'octave' of 439 possible tones (or is it 440?). Likewise, the 'octave' lower will have 219 (or 220) possible tones.

Surely the number of tones/frequencies is infinite. You can just as easily have 879.52 Hz

[Serial_Apologist]

I used to help our school music master tune the parish church organ from time to time: my role was to hold the note down while he fiddled (no pun intended) with the lip on the metal pipes or the length adjustment on the wooden ones.
I too enjoyed watching the piano tuner at work at home.

When I was a nipper we had a piano tuner called Mr Clapp, then in his 90s, who could remember the district, Earl's Court, as a village! This happened to be true, as I recently discovered on perusing street maps from 1865! Mr Clapp did the kiddies parties that were run by Kensington council for the likes of us in the late 1940s: he was a very popular Mister Pastry-type character, dressed up as a bunny doing his "Run Rabbit Run" routine.

[teamsaint]

Just listening to the interval feature on R3 tonight, which was introduced as improvisations.

I wonder what difference , if any, people understand in music between the terms improvisation and extemporisation ?
I always understood a difference in that extemporisation is more based in an existing work, ( the sort of thing that organists do when they need to extend the length of a piece , ) whereas improvisation is closer to 100% original work, free jazz, that sort of thing.

Correct answers on an old fashioned postcard.

[Pabmusic]

Just listening to the interval feature on R3 tonight, which was introduced as improvisations.

I wonder what difference , if any, people understand in music between the terms improvisation and extemporisation ?
I always understood a difference in that extemporisation is more based in an existing work, ( the sort of thing that organists do when they need to extend the length of a piece , ) whereas improvisation is closer to 100% original work, free jazz, that sort of thing.

Correct answers on an old fashioned postcard.

A superficial glance suggests that dictionaries have the words as synonyms - invariably so. However, it may be that extemporize is the slightly less prepared performance - "to speak or perform without any preparation or thought" - which is from Cambridge and seems to sum up much contemporary speech. Or Radio 3.

A copyediting site contains this. The first dreadful sentence should never have passed the copyeditors:

"Many copyeditors are more familiar with the term improvisation more so than extemporize. Improvisation comes up more during theatre when performers act out scenes without previously been given lines. Extemporize comes more from speech and debate when candidates are given a topic and then asked to speak freely without previous research. In reality, both of these words can be used the same way and can be interchangeable".

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

"Improvisation" means you make something better.
"Extemporisation" is when you lose the beat.

A copyediting site contains this. The first dreadful sentence should never have passed the copyeditors

[cloughie]

"Improvisation" means you make something better.
"Extemporisation" is when you lose the beat.

"Extemporisation" is when you lose the beat... and scream at it with far more notes than you really need!

[Pulcinella]

Does anyone know of a site that lists the orchestration/instrumentation of classical works?
I'm sure that I chanced upon one once while investigating the orchestra required to accompany a piece of music our choral society was thinking of performing, but it might have been the publisher's hiring department.
No real reason for the question, other than general interest to see the sort of orchestra certain pieces are written for.

Actually, there IS a bit of a reason.
Having listened recently twice to Hindemith's 1945 Piano concerto, there is an odd orchestral sound I can't identify: looking at the list of instruments the work is scored for might help!

[Bryn]

Does anyone know of a site that lists the orchestration/instrumentation of classical works?
I'm sure that I chanced upon one once while investigating the orchestra required to accompany a piece of music our choral society was thinking of performing, but it might have been the publisher's hiring department.
No real reason for the question, other than general interest to see the sort of orchestra certain pieces are written for.

Actually, there IS a bit of a reason.
Having listened recently twice to Hindemith's 1945 Piano concerto, there is an odd orchestral sound I can't identify: looking at the list of instruments the work is scored for might help!

According to the IMSLP instrumantation [more ...] listing:



Solo - Piano
Orchestra

piccolo, flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (B♭), bass clarinet (B♭), 2 bassoons
2 horns (F), 2 trumpets (B♭), 2 trombones, tuba
timpani (3 drums), percussion (4 players), strings

bass drum, small tenor drum, snare drum, triangle,
cymbals, 2 tomtoms, tambourine, glockenspiel

[Pulcinella]

According to the IMSLP instrumantation [more ...] listing:



Solo - Piano
Orchestra

piccolo, flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (B♭), bass clarinet (B♭), 2 bassoons
2 horns (F), 2 trumpets (B♭), 2 trombones, tuba
timpani (3 drums), percussion (4 players), strings

bass drum, small tenor drum, snare drum, triangle,
cymbals, 2 tomtoms, tambourine, glockenspiel

Thanks, Bryn.
I need to listen again in case my ears were deceiving me (I don't think it was the wind and rain yesterday ); perhaps the bass clarinet rumbles away in the background at some point, but to me it sounded a more 'electronic' sound.

Was your 'more....' intended to be a helpful link to the site?

[Bryn]

. . . Was your 'more....' intended to be a helpful link to the site?

Not as such. There is a link marked [more ...] re. the instrumentation on the IMSLP page for the 1945 Piano Concerto.

[Richard Barrett]

perhaps the bass clarinet rumbles away in the background at some point, but to me it sounded a more 'electronic' sound.

Can you tell us the recording you were listening to and give us a timing for what you heard?