A 440 Hz Standard

[stephen kabat]

Jim - I tune in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Cleveland Orchestra tunes to
A-440.  
I also had the opportunity recently to ask the head tuner at the
Juillard School in NYC what they tuned to, and he told me that the head
of the school wanted A-441. From the way the tech described the
situation, it seems to me that he simply accepted the administrator's
decision rather than make waves. I can understand that, sortof. Having
said that, though, it seems to me that there really is a confusion in
the minds of musicians and orchestra administrators between what
constitutes pitch and what constitutes timbre. Several years ago, the
principal violist of the Philadelphia orchestra came here to do some
recording with our piano faculty head, and he wanted our piano raised to
442, because that's what he was used to in Philly. I told him(with flame
suit at the ready!!)  that we tuned to 440 because if it was good enough
for George Szell it was good enough for me! He was surprised that the
Cleveland Orchestra tuned to 440; he thought it tuned to 442.  I assured
him that no, the Cleveland Orch. tuned to 440, thank you very much.
	Sorry for the length of this post, but this topic is something
that gets my goat. Why is this (accepting standard pitch) so hard?  I
wish someone would write a scholarly article, couched in the appropriate
ivory-tower legalize, that would convince these people to leave the
pitch at 440 and tell the string players to deal with it. Maybe Owen
Jorgensen or someone else has already done so, and we could mail the
Administrators our thoughts.
A Petition, as it were.
Regards, Steve Kabat
-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of
James Ellis
Sent: Monday, April 12, 2004 10:08 AM
To: caut@ptg.org
Subject: A 440 Hz Standard

The National Symphony Orchestra from Washington DC is giving a concert
in
Oak Ridge TN on April 23.  Their manager has informed the ORCMA manager
in
Oak Ridge that the piano must be tuned to A 442, and they even sent
general
instructions about how and when to do it.  I'm just wondering:  What
orchestras are there out there that play at various different pitches
other
than A=440 Hz, and what are those pitches?  If 442 is better than 440,
why
then is 443 not better than 442, or 444, 445, 446, or even 447 not a lot
better than any of the former?  Once upon a time, I'm told, a yard was
equal to the distance between the king's nose and the tip of his
outstretched finger.  I'm glad we got beyond that.  Whatever happened to
the idea of standards, anyway?  It seems to me that some people just
have
to be different.

Sincerely, Jim Ellis


_______________________________________________
caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives