Re: Re: [Harp-L] raising a reed's pitch

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

David Payne wrote:
<Here is an example of Leo Diamond, back in the 1950s, doing exactly what you're talking about - <bending notes UP on a chromatic. 
<
< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBgSDZLLoZM
<
<Now Leo was a master player. He was also a master customizer. Recordings of Leo are very helpful in <kind of getting some vague idea about the history of customizing. One of these interesting facts I <learned from audio evidence of Leo is that embossing was done in the 1930s. 
< The harp he plays here is probably one of the awesome custom chromatics ever made. There's lot of <stuff he's done to it... one of these things makes  it possible to bend notes up. What he's done is <alter the reference pitch. This harp is probably tuned at A=480 (that was not a typo). It's tuned so <sharply that he has to bend every single note down to pitch. If every note must be bent down, then <releasing that bend gives you the ability to bend up. 

I agree with Dave's analysis of how it's done.  But A=480 sounds pretty high to me.  Tommy Morgan told me once that he carried chromatics tuned to A=447 (in addition to harps tuned to standard pitch, i.e. A=440) in order to get the "Diamond sound," i.e. the sound of a chromatic played hard with heavy throat vibrato (and at concert pitch).  

Just how much up-bending is Diamond doing, anyway?

RH 

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