[Harp-L] RE: Bending intonation...the regular kind

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mike Fugazzi wrote:
<It would be great to have sound samples of
<a really awesome player playing the chromatic scale at
<a slow pace.  Somebody who is spot on with their tone,
<intonation, and timbre.

If you ever find that person, let me know.

WARNING: The material below is not new (at least where I'm concerned), and has previously provoked plenty of heated discussion.  Here we go.

This issue has been discussed at length on this forum, and no one--I repeat, no one--has every provided a recording that does what is described above.  The "Ode to Joy challenge" of a few years ago didn't produce a single recording that matched timbre between altered and unaltered notes.  In fact, the double bend on the draw 3 reed was embarassingly obvious on every entry.

Not long ago, Chris Michalek, a very devoted overblower, commented on this list that he was getting tired of the sound of overblown notes.  Maybe he was just having a bad day.  But it's clear that he could hear a difference in timbre.

We can talk about whether it really matters (yes, it does), and we can argue about whether those non-normal timbres add a delightful character to the harp (maybe sometimes, but generally not).  But we're past the point where anyone can claim with a straight face that you can't tell the difference between the timbre of an altered pitch and the timbre of the same reed playing its normal pitch.

If you disagree, please provide the goods, i.e. a recording that demonstrates that your bent and overblown notes sound just like the unaltered tones.  If you can't do that, then you ain't got the goods.

Regards, Richard Hunter