Paul Katz of Cleveland Quartet with Tallis Quartet
Quartet Intonation (Part 2): Melody and Harmony Demand Different Solutions
- Chords and melodies require a different type of intonation.
- Perfect intervals (octaves, perfect fifths, and perfect fourths) are unchanged and remain pure in both melodic and harmonic tuning.
- “Melodically conceived intonation” desires high major thirds and leading tones that causes intonation problems in chords.
- Intonation necessarily involves subjective decisions and taste.
- Differentiate between melodically (horizontally) conceived intonation and harmonically (vertically) conceived intonation.
- Melodies have more room for subjective decisions than chords regarding the tuning of half-steps and augmented intervals.
- Lowering major thirds (not in melodies, but in chords) helps improve overall intonation.
- Consider the speed of the passage when doing slow intonation work in rehearsals.
- Demonstration of how a scale or melody with a high leading tone causes poor intonation in a chord.
- Demonstration of how thirds in major chords (vertical tuning) need to be tuned surprisingly low.
- Contrary to common belief, major thirds in chords need to be lowered (but not in melodies).
- Demonstration that how a quartet tunes is often determined by the speed of the passage.
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Cleveland Quartet
For more than a quarter of a century, the Cleveland Quartet was hailed as one of the premier string quartets…
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"Just (harmonic) intonation is based on the harmonic overtones series and is mainly used for playing double stops and chords (it is especially useful in chamber ensembles)." -Hans Jørgen Jensen