Hans Pizka <[email protected]> wrote: the off stage brass sounds flat to the player on stage because of the distance. But it is not much.
Hans confirms that in his experience the effect is real, but "because of the distance" doesn't explain anything. I can think of no physical effect that would alter the frequency of an essentially-continuous sound depending on distance. The first thing that needs to be determined is whether the players indeed _are_ flat, or whether they merely _sound_ flat to on-stage players. Bob -- can you sneak a tuner on stage (without getting ridiculed, or having the cameras pick it up)? I presume you are talking about places like the offstage opening in Mahler 2, last movement. That's unison so a tuner ought do a good job determining whether the playing is actually flat. If the players really are playing flat, what could be the reason? Some of that Mahler offstage work is _loud_, and it is well established that brass instruments go flat when played loud, as in the Mahler passage cited above. (This has been discussed before on these lists -- the D.C. velocity of breath flowing through the tube speeds the propagation of sound waves _down_ the tube, but retards the reflected sound back _up_ the tube, and the latter effect is greater. The effect is not small -- cabbage established years ago that the velocity of exhalation through a soda straw can exceed 100 mph. Similarly, the velocity of breath in the lead pipe can be a large enough fraction of the speed of sound to make a pitch difference.) Players, of course, would naturally compensate for the lowered pitch. But I wonder, is there anything about playing offstage that would make them less sensitive to the change or otherwise to compensate less? Many offstage parts are played while the onstage orchestra is silent, so offstage players do not have the bassi and strings as a guide. This is indeed an interesting issue. _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
