On Jan 6, 2012, at 4:17 PM, Edward Martin wrote: >> The usual answer is "better sharp than out of tune."
> How silly is that? Playing sharp _is_ out of tune! Well, it's a joke, but like much humor, it's based in experience. If the orchestra is playing at 441 and the flute player comes in at 442 with her big solo, nobody will hear it as sharp; they'll just hear the flute as being a bit more brilliant and (if Roman will pardon the expression) prominent. That's the theory, anyway. Really good players can manipulate fine gradations in pitch. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
