[Harp-L] Ode to Joy revisited

[fssharp@xxxxx]

I believe the purpose of the "Ode to Joy Challenge" was to see how close one
could get to playing it "seamlessly" in 2nd position.  Not that one would
ever actually do that (in a serious performance context) when first position
or alternate tunings or chromatics are an option.  So I think this "debate"
misses the point.  The point IIRC was that it was a "training" challenge to
see how well intoned with seamless timbre you could make that bent note, and
OTJ just happened to be a well known melody that highlighted one's efforts
to make the bent note "transparent".  It is a useful skill in playing the
Richter tuned diatonic harmonica in a lot of contexts.  The recordings of
some of the best players in the world attempting this gave us a benchmark
against which we could judge our efforts.   Not if it met a standard for
performance, merely a training aid.  IMO
Fred S