Tune accordions sharp so that they stand out in group playing - A myth?

[dak]

All these organs were tuned to 440Hz.

How would they do that? Unless you do a general retuning (that usually involves shuffling the pipes and creating substitutes for the low end), most organ pipe types can very much only be tuned upwards with some reliability. So after a general tuning, they tend to be somewhat below concert pitch and over the years go higher with each tuning. Unless we are talking electronic organs, an organ that is 440Hz straight should be either brand new or electronic or coincidence.

 

[debra]

How would they do that? Unless you do a general retuning (that usually involves shuffling the pipes and creating substitutes for the low end), most organ pipe types can very much only be tuned upwards with some reliability. So after a general tuning, they tend to be somewhat below concert pitch and over the years go higher with each tuning. Unless we are talking electronic organs, an organ that is 440Hz straight should be either brand new or electronic or coincidence.

What I meant is that these organs were once tuned to 440Hz. They may have gone off a bit but not enough to sound like they were once tuned at 442Hz. Organs are also subject to temperature differences. We once practiced for a concert in a cold church and the organ sounded way too high (compared to the accordions). When we had the actual concert the church was at least 10c warmer and the organ sounded fine with the accordions.

 

[Rosie C]

Luckily the vast majority of NSAO has accordions tuned to 440Hz (only 3 Piginis and 1 Victoria out of tune at 442Hz) as both the organ and the grand piano there are tuned to 440Hz.

This was apparently the way in mediaeval England - correct tuning was whatever the local church organ was tuned to.

 

[Alan Sharkis]

There is the following joke:

Question: Give me an example of a minor second.
Answer: Two pipers trying to play in unison.

But seriously, and some of you might have seen this before from me.

Picture a band made up of seventh and eighth graders from several different schools. We all had the same music, but didn’t rehearse together. We only got together at performances at the various schools. Since this was the late fifties and accordions were popular, we wound up with no less than six kids playing accordion. Somehow it worked. Tuning was done to whatever piano we encountered in whatever school we found ourselves in — until one day we found ourselves in a school that had a very old piano that must have been tuned to 438 or even lower. The solution:

Pianists, play whatever solo you know by heart.

Strings, brasses, reeds, try to tune as flat as you can.

Percussion, you’re OK.

Accordions, close your bellows straps and smile.