Herr Schull, At 03:06 11/11/2000 -0500, you wrote: >John, > >It would be interesting to find additional documentation about this (the >extent of Steinway's use of the high pitch). For example, was the early "A" >scale designed for the high pitch? It was designed in 1878. Right now I am >just trying to figure out my Style 2 7'3" from 1878. ><mega snip> Below is a list of pitches found (mostly by Ellis) which I hand out to my classes. I had to eliminate diacriticals when I imported into this e-mail, so please forgive their absence. Font changes also screwed up columns, but I hope you can still make some sense of it all. If not, I'll try later when I'm actually awake. Pitches with only a letter after them are for reference to 440Hz ET. As you can see, the pitchs found varied from a low near modern F# to above C# !! Categories are Ellis'. >Pitch Standards for A compared with modern European equal temperament >scale based on A-440. Many of these are from Alexander Ellis' book and >were measured or deduced from actual forks, organ pipes or other instruments. > >Hz Location ==== Temp. Pitch ==== Year >----------------------------------------------------------------- 369.994 F# > Church Pitch Lowest > ------------------- > >370 Ideal Lowest >374 Hospice Comtesse 1700 >377 Schlick low 1511 > " Bedos de Celles 1766 > > Church Pitch Low > ---------------- >391 Strasburg Cathedral - Silbermann Organ 1714 >391.995 G >392 St Petersburg - Euler Clavichord 1739 >395 Cambridge - Trinity College Organ/Father Smith 1759 >396 Versailles Organ 1789 > DeCaus > 1615 > > Chamber Pitch Low > ----------------- >400 Paris >Opera 1700 >403 Mersenne Spinet 1648 >407 Paris - Spinet by Sauveur 1713 >408 Matteson, Hamburg 1762 >409 Paris - Court Clavecins (Pascal Taskin) 1783 >414.4 Breslau - Clavichord (Marpurg) 1776 > > European Mean Pitch for two centuries > ------------------------------------- >415 Dresden - Silbermann Organ 1722 > >415.305 G# >420 Freiberg 1714 > " Seville 1785 >421.6 Mozart's piano (from Stein' s fork) 1780 >422.5 Haendel's tuning fork 1751 >422.6 Lille, France 1754 >422.7 Broadwood 1800 >423 Westminster Abbey Organ 1820 > " Paris Theatre Feydeau 1820 >423.2 Dresden, Band of the Opera 1815-21 >423.3 Philharmonic Society 1813 >424 Praetorius suitable pitch 1619 >424.1 Eutin, Germany 1740 >424.2 Paris Italian Opera 1823 >425 Paris Italian Opera 1829 >425.8 Paris Grand Opera 1824 >427.1 Paris Grand Opera 1811 >427.6 Paris Theatre Feydeau 1823 >428 Renatus Harris Organ 1696 >430 Paris (M Lemoine) 1810 >431.5 Paris Opera 1828 > > Compromise Pitch > ---------------- >433 Sir George Smart's tuning fork 1828 > Broadwood 1820 >433.9 Vienna Opera 1834 > Concurrent Scheibler forks: 436.5 \ > 439.4 \ > 440.3 > 1834 > 441.1 / > 445.1 / >434 Paris Grand Opera 1834 >435 French Diapason (tuning fork) Normal 1859 > " International 1892 > " Dresden, Band of the Opera 1825-30 > " Karlsruhe © Jos. Strauss 1859 >435.4 Philharmonic Society 1828 >436 St Petersburg Opera 1796 >438 Paris Theatre Feydeau 1829 >439 New Philharmonic 1896 > >=== Modern Orchestral Pitch and Ancient Medium Church Pitch ===== >440 A American Federation of Musicians 1917 > " U.S. Government 1920 > " Associated Music Industries 1925 > " ÃInternational Standard 1939 > " Paris Conservatoire 1812 > " Dresden Opera 1862 > >440.2 Scheibler's Stuttgart Standard 1834 >441 Covent Garden Opera 1878 > " Paris Grand Opera 1836 > " Paris Italian Opera 1836 > " Paris Theatre Feydeau 1836 >441.8 Berlin Opera 1834 >442 Hampton Court Palace 1690 > " Bernhardt Schmidt low 1690 >442.4 Erard - Paris 1899 >443.3 Paris - Woelfel pianofortes 1836 >444 Paris - Cavaille-Coll organ 1859 >444.6 London - St Paul's Cathedral Organ 1877 >445 Madrid 1858 >445.9 Broadwood's medium pitch 1849-54 >446 Paris © Pleyel pianos 1854 >447 Vienna Opera 1878 > " Paris Opera 1858 >448 Hamburg Opera 1839 >449 Leipzig Gewandhaus 1859 > " Paris Conservatoire 1853 >450 Covent Garden Orchestra 1879 >451 British & Belgian Instrument Std 1879 >452 London - International Exhibition 1885 >452.5 Philharmonic Society 1846-54 >455 London Philharmonic (highest) 1874 >455.3 Erard,Broadwood,Steinway,Brinsmead 1880 >456.1 Vienna, old sharp pitch (Streicher piano) 1834 >457.2 American Steinway 1890 > > > Church Pitch High > ----------------- >458 Great Franciscan Organ, Vienna 1640 >461.6 Highest U.S. Concert Pitch 1800's >466.164 A# >474 Tomkins 1668 > " B. Schmidt, high 1683 >481 St Catherine's, Hamburg 1543 >489 St James, Hamburg - Schnitger Organs 1688 > Church Pitch Highest > -------------------- >493.883 B >494 St James, Hamburg 1879 >496 Rendsburg 1668 >504 Arnold Schlick high 1511 >506 Halberstadt Cathedral 1361 >522.5 Handel's tuning fork 1751 >523.251 C > >554.365 C# > Chamber Pitch Highest > --------------------- > >563 Mersenne, ton de chambre 1636 >567 Pretorius 1619 >587.33 D Conrad Hoffsommer - Luther College, Decorah, IA Ignorance doesn't kill you, but it will make you sweat a lot.-Haitian proverb
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