On Dec 10, 2007, at 12:56 AM, Martyn Hodgson wrote:

>   As said: I don't really see why I should go to the considerable  
> trouble of listing the many scholarly papers and books which have  
> dealt with this question in depth (Haynes is but one) since Ellis's  
> pioneering work was published in 1880.   Especially so when the  
> point being made was simply that there was not just one 17th/18th C  
> Roman pitch,  rather than trying to identify what these pitches  
> actially were.  Perhaps you disagree? - in which case, since it is  
> far easier to disprove a proposition than to test it by numerous  
> examples, I await your reply proving that there was only ever one  
> pitch used in Rome during this period (say, 1600 - 1750)..............

No thanks.  You made a statement that seemed to challenge  
conventional wisdom about Roman pitch.  I just wondered whether the  
statement might have been occasioned by specific information.   
Evidently it wasn't. I won't waste any more of your time.


On Dec 10, 2007, at 7:17 AM, Martyn Hodgson wrote:

> Indeed and this is the very point I wished to put across to those  
> who appear to think there was some such thing as an established  
> 'roman' pitch.
>
>   MH
>
> LGS-Europe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>   And I forgot the best quote from the Grove article:
>
> The concept of a precise and universal relation between notation  
> and pitch
> was alien to most Western musicians, and there was no specific term  
> for
> pitch itself before 1800.



One does not follow from the other.  Every organ, cornetto and  
recorder built in Rome in the 1650's might have been constructed to  
play at A=387.6547498904 regardless of whether the builder had a word  
for pitch.
--

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