[CAUT] International standard?

[Fred Sturm]

    Ed Swenson posted an informative article about pitch history on his
website - http://www.mozartpiano.com/pitch.html - which gives a good
overview. The best I have ever been able to tell is that at some anonymous
"international conference" in 1939 A440 was "adopted." No treaty involved,
to the best of my knowledge. Pitch has always been a relatively unimportant
item in the international standards movement (do note that the metric system
is the official and legal standard of measurement in the United States. Law
and treaty. So we have no business scolding others for being scofflaws when
it comes to standards).
    435 was established by the French in the mid 19th century (they created
a standard tuning fork for use as an international reference, and deposited
it in their standards archive), so you know the Germans would never go
along. I believe the Vienna Philharmonic has used a 445 standard fairly
consistently for 100 years and more.
    Bottom line, there is no real international agreement, or at least no
binding agreement. There are various agreements among various components of
the international musical community. I think the American and Japanese piano
manufacturers agree on 440, for instance, but I don't know about the
Germans. It is and always has been a voluntary standard, and there have
always been regional differences. The differences today are far less than
they were at many times in the past. About the time of the piano's
invention, Italian pitch standard varied within a range of 200 cents
according to contemporary sources (half step differences between Rome and a
couple other cities, one of which was 100 cents sharp, the other 200 cents).
    So, hey, 440 to 442 is a tiny thing to deal with <g>. I believe that
today 442 is far closer to being the agreed upon international standard
(even without some "official seal of approval") than 440. I don't believe
there is any particular danger of "out of control pitch inflation."
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico



On 4/26/05 1:16 PM, "Alan McCoy" <amccoy@mail.ewu.edu> wrote:

> Does anyone know where to find out about the history of the agreement to
> standardize pitch at A-440? Like who was present and under what auspices was
> the agreement reached? Just curious as to whether the current disparity
> regarding this issue of an "international" standard is American conceit,
> European amnesia/intransigence or what.
> 
> Along this line. Is it only the string section pushing for a higher pitch?
> If a string player wants more brilliance, is there a different way to
> achieve it other than changing the pitch? Like changing wire gauge? Does the
> higher pitch actually give a more "brilliant" quality?
> 
> I'm probably addressing the wrong group here, but I'm still curious about
> this issue.
> 
> Alan
> 
> 
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