A 440 Hz Standard

Avery Todd atodd@UH.EDU
Mon, 12 Apr 2004 11:56:30 -0500


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At 10:07 AM 4/12/2004 -0400, you wrote:
Hi Jim,


>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?

The Houston Symphony performs at A-442. I tune for them occasionally when
some performance is done here at the university. I also charge them a pitch
raise & pitch lowering fee because I'm gotten A-440 established as the
standard here at the university! The only person I've gotten any "flack"
from at all is a violin teacher. Surprise! :-) We ended up compromising by
me tuning her studio piano at A-441 but I still tune A-440 for all our
concerts and recitals and told her so.

A few years back, the symphony did a series of concerts here calling it a 
Baroque
Festival. Of couse, they did all the concerts at 442 and no HT's at all. :-(
Harpsichords were the only keyboard(s) used and I wasn't able to do all the
tunings, so I asked their regular tuner to do them. Tuning 3 harpsichords at a
time for rehearsals and then again for performances would have been good 
money! :-)

>  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?

I've been told some European orchestras DO go as high as that! The singers
HATE it! :-)

>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.

They seem to think it makes them sound more brilliant, which I
guess it does, but there comes a point when some players have to
have a special instrument made to be able to reach those higher
pitch levels.

>Sincerely, Jim Ellis

Avery
University of Houston 
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