I am recalling that in Sacred Harp singing, the tenor and soprano lines are
frequently uncomfortably high for today's singers. Does anyone know if
people are significantly taller nowadays than in Bach's time? And with
different vocal cord length? My supposition has been that they are; if so,
that would have a bearing on the topic at hand, below, I think.
Also, --re size and tempo--I have heard a folk dance teacher comment on
height as a factor in the comfortable performing of a dance; i.e., a
six-year-old and a grown man would take respectively shorter (quicker) and
longer (slower) steps to cover the same distance in the same time. Would the
instances of dance-derived melodies be best done more slowly in this era
than in Bach's time, so that the audience could relate with innate bodily
response? Just a few thoughts...
Nancy C.
>From: Joel Figen <natural@w...>
>Reply-To: vocalist-temporary@egroups.com
>>At 09:00 AM 06/15/2000 -0700, Tako Oda wrote:
> >I had heard that there are many old German organs which are actually
> >tuned *higher* than A=440... very interesting - Does anyone know what
> >pitches with which Bach worked during different phases of his career?
>
>There was a pitch standard called "Chorton" (choral pitch) that was said to
>be a minor third higher than orchestral pitch of the time - which everyone
>knows was slightly lower than now. Organs were often tuned to ChorTon -
>this could account for some of the very low notes in Bach's choral parts -
>I guess we'd have to look at all the old manuscripts to see how they were
>notated.
>
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