A 440 Hz Standard

Isaac OLEG oleg-i@noos.fr
Sat, 17 Apr 2004 11:10:52 +0200


Hello,

A lot of interesting comments on this thread/

Living in Europe, I have always find 442 uses by orchestras (a few
rare exceptions) , and it does not seem to change for the higher with
time.

As you said there is a change in the timbre of the pianos, some are
sounding a little bit more sharp at 442 or even 443 Hz for Steinways.

Other instruments should sound better at 440 Hz, it depends of the
scale and the kind of tone I guess.

I have find it to be a huge difference on lower scale instruments, ,
depending of the difference in solicitation of the wire, it can be a
more or less large difference.

Nowadays Xylo's, vibraphones, Celesta's and fixed pitch instruments
for the orchestras sold in Europe are tuned at 442 at last. We even
ask Selmer and they told us their brass instruments where intended to
be played this pitch, I don't recall them saying me they provide other
instruments for the US market, but I may be wrong.

Nowadays if pitch changes are done on concert instruments, the strings
are to be replaced sooner. I did not knew of any concert instrument
that don't need new strings after 9-10 years of use and 2 pitch
changes/year more or less.

When I was tuning for concert service, I even have sometime find a way
to tune the A's at the demanded pitch while progressively moving the
remaining of the notes , cheating so the last notes where really
disturbed in the end (the extremes and basses stay the same for
instance. Kind of historical temperament ! As said one of my
colleagues : "when nothing goes, tune the A's !"

By the way a quick look at the pitch history (with an impressive data
collection of pitches BTW)  in Helmoltz "sensation of tone" (addendums
from Alexander Ellis) show a huge preference for highest pitches (
above 442) since the apparition of the "modern" piano .

Hey I don't want to argue about , just noticed that, even in America,
out of Mason e Hamlin "French Pitch of 1868 - 435.9 Hz , the pitch
range from 443 to 460 in 1880

Where do come that 440 standard in fact, I understand that a standard
had to be made, but why this and not something else ?

On the other hand I like the tone of some instruments at 440, and for
others it seem a little asleep.


Best Regards.


-----Message d'origine-----
De : caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org]De la part de
Fred Sturm
Envoye : vendredi 16 avril 2004 18:37
A : College and University Technicians
Objet : Re: A 440 Hz Standard


--On Wednesday, April 14, 2004 8:45 PM -0800 David Ilvedson
<ilvey@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> And I suppose if we went along with A442 as standard it would just
keep
> getting higher...
>
> David I.
Hi David,
	I'm afraid my opinion of the relative influence of the piano
technician
constituency is lower than yours <g>. Our "going along" or not makes
very
little difference to the musical community, IMO. I think we have very
cogent arguments to make as to the desirability of maintaining a
standard
pitch for any given instrument and venue - time, money, stability, a
number
of practical considerations - but as to what the pitch should be,
well,
that's not really our department. Pianos can accept 435, 440, 442,
444,
445, etc, without any problems I am aware of. Doesn't have a
noticeable
affect on their structure or tone quality (or, at any rate, I am
unable to
hear a discernable difference).
	There are plenty of practical considerations beyond our own realm
(existence of thousands of wind instruments made to the 440 standard,
for
instance) which weigh in favor of restraining the ever sharper desires
of
the string players.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico

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