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From: robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison)
Newsgroups: net.audio,net.music.classical
Subject: Re: Absolute pitch
Message-ID: <869@eosp1.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 10-May-84 12:15:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: eosp1.869
Posted: Thu May 10 12:15:26 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 12-May-84 08:29:18 EDT
Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton, NJ
Lines: 18

References:

When Mozart wrote in the "bright, cheerful key of D major", "D" was pitched
at a lower frequency than it is today.  Nonetheless, the key probably had the
qualities it had today due to the constructions of musical instruments:

  - In orchestra performances, the difference between, say, D major and
    D-flat major is that many more notes played by the musicians resonate
    on the open strings of all the string instruments.

  - Assuming that tuning methods have not much changed until recently,
    Piano music in D and Dflat will consistently hit the tempered adjustments
    in different ways, jsut as they do today on pianos that are not tuned
    electronically.
					- Toby Robison (not Robinson!)
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