a capella intonation

I have just been inspecting spectrograms of a Russian choir singing a
Rachmaninoff setting of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. The CD is of the
Russian State Symphony Capella directed by Valery Polyansky. (BTW- Its
amazingly beautiful)

I used Cool Edit and Spectrogram 4.1.2, both de facto freeware programs to
generate spectrograms of two sustained chords: the opening major chord
lasting ~15 seconds, and the same chord appearing as the climax of the piece
about 3 minutes into it, also sustained.

The opening chord is unstable and the intonation changes over the course of
it as the singers get their bearings. The thirds are unmistakably equal
tempered and the fifths and octaves are stretched by as much as 20 cents.

The same chord 3 minutes into the piece has just as unmistakable JUST thirds
of ~ 385c and a higher third that is even 382 cents. The fifths and octaves
have become perfect as well.

The verdict? I think its pretty obvious that someone played the opening
chord for the singers on the piano before the tape rolled, and their valiant
attempts to reproduce this bizarre tuning resulted in the first chord. By
the time the same chord rolls around three minutes later they have
mercifully forgotten the piano tuning and have reverted to nature.

dante

"I used Cool Edit and Spectrogram 4.1.2, both de facto freeware programs to
generate spectrograms of two sustained chords"

so if this is freeware... how may I get a copy... for PC even...
;)
Azi

_______________________________________________________________
Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com