![]() ![]() At the end of the day, Music is very subjective, and the choice of A440 as a tuning standard was mostly arbitrary. Conspiracy theorists and pseudoscientists argue that A432 is more in sync with the vibrations of the universe (Guerrieri, 2017). The New York Philharmonic orchestra does the opposite and tunes to A442 instead of A440 (New York Philharmonic, 2017). Ensembles that perform early music often experiment with lower pitches, which better match with how the music would have been performed historically (Guerrieri, 2017). They were followed by the American National Standards Institute 1936, which greatly influenced the global adoption of A440 as the international standard in 1939 (Sweetwater, 2004).Įven though A440 is used as a standard, not everyone uses it. His efforts paid off, and the American Union of Musicians decided to adopt A440 as the new standard pitch in 1910 (Guerrieri, 2017). Deagan, a bell and tuning fork manufacturer pushed for A440 to become official benchmark. The Berlin Philharmonic tuned to A441, Paris’ standard pitch ranged from A426 to 440, all while the Vienna Philharmonic used six distinct tuning forks, ranging from A433 to A444 (Guerrieri, 2017).Īcross the pond in the United States, J. Even with all of this effort, pitch was anything but standard. In 1859, the French authorities deemed A435 to be the new standard pitch, and A435 swiftly evolved into a new benchmark for instrument manufacturers (Bennet, 2017). Several adopted the new “Stuttgart pitch,” but it wasn’t universally used across Europe (Bennet, 2017). In this environment, pitch could no longer be unique to region, a standard was needed (Bennet, 2017).Ī440 was proposed as the standard at the German Society of Naturalists and Physicians' annual conference in 1834. Music became farther reaching, and more accessible to a wider audience. ![]() This system was far from standard, and with the invention of the steam engine, musicians had the ability to travel farther distances than ever before. As a result, standard pitch could range from as low as 373 Hz up to 457 Hz, depending on region (Sweetwater, 2004). Europe had a variety of tuning methods, with nearly 300 being used in the 19th century (Bennet, 2017). Organs varied greatly in size and shape, and their pitch would fluctuate with the temperature changes in summer and winter. Most people used the largest musical instrument available to them as their tuning standard, which more often than not was the local church organ (Guerrieri, 2017). Has the A above middle C always been set at 440 cycles per second, and how was this specific pitch chosen?įor the longest time, pitch was a regional characteristic. When an instrument is tuned to A440, the instrument will be in harmony with itself and other musical instruments (Guerrieri, 2017). A above middle C vibrates at 440 cycles per second, and is used as the standard for tuning. Pianos, guitars, and most other musical instruments are tuned to the A just above middle C. ![]()
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