Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:45:41 -0500 From: Richard Hunter Reply-To: richard.hunt~net.net X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.03 (Win95; I) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Mike Curtis Subject: Re: Bends, Tone, and Timbre References:
Mike Curtis wrote: > > On Tue, 13 Jan 1998, Richard Hunter wrote: > > >Mike Curtis wrote (regarding bends and overblows): > >>> > >I agree that they're not inherently stable, and are challenging etc.. > >However, with proper technique, practice, and control, they can be made > >to be quite stable. > >>> > > > >This is patently untrue if we're talking about a moving line that mixes > >both bent and unbent pitches. > > Have you heard Charlie Musselwhites Cristo Redemptor? The first note of > that song is a 3Dbb, although you can't tell by listening for a > "characteristic bend sound", because it's simply not there. It becomes > quite obvious he's actually in third position when you try to play it in > 2nd position on an unvalved harp and get into the second verse and run out > of notes :-) (Besides, he himself says he uses third position :-) > > -- IronMan Mike Curtis > My CD "Doin' It All Myself" available in Tower, Blockbuster, Camelot, PX
I am very familiar with this recording; as I note in my homage to Musselwhite at my web site, it is the very recording that changed my life, 28 years ago. It is a masterpiece.
However, I knew the first day I heard this piece that it was played in third position. I knew this because the 3Dbb that you refer to was played slightly out of tune, and with a timbre change that makes it obvious that the note is played with a bend.
The brilliance of this piece aside, it's not proof of your point. - --
