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Comment by jnwatson | Hacker News Reader

Exactly. The only fixed-pitch instruments in an orchestra are the piano and the percussion section.

It was routine even in my high school brass section to pitch down the major 3rds.

Having briefly learned a few wind instruments (flute and horn primarily) I'm aware pitch adjustment is possible but the keys/valves are designed around equal temperament - for anything other than slower sustained passages (or potentially repeated notes) constantly trying to approximate just intervals doesn't seem sustainable. And again, absolutely not what I would want or except to hear as a composer.

skilled instrumentalists are quite capable of consistently reproducing intervals in a given tuning system. particularly thirds in just intonation. it’s not an approximation. it’s one of the reasons we spend so much time learning ear training in conservatory.

I argue all just about all intonation is some sort of approximation, unless you're playing an electronic instrument that doesn't allow pitch adjustments! And it does surprise me how little my ears seem to notice despite having zero tolerance for people singing even slightly off-key.

relative to mathematical perfection, of course it’s all an approximation when a human instrumentalist is involved. that’s the nature of our physical reality.

the most important element here is how it sounds to our ears. not how closely it tracks to an equation.

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