Re: piano tuning and the 256 Hz middle C

[brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>]

At 13:12 11/5/97 -0500, Steve Luzader wrote:
> Pianos are subjected to what is known as "stretched tuning", 
> ... since musical intervals (pitch differences) are defined 
> as frequency ratios, only one "standard" pitch needs to be defined.  
> Historically, this has been done with the A above middle C on the piano
> having a frequency somewhere in the neighborhood of 440 Hz, although 
> the actual standard has varied somewhat.  When (around the end of the 
> 19th or beginning of the 20 century) it was decided to have an official 
> standard of pitch, one suggestion was to make all the C's have 
> frequencies that were multiples of 2.  However, this turned out to be 
> too far from musical preferences of that time, because a 256 Hz middle 
> C puts the next A at about 431 Hz.  At this time, even wind band 
> instruments were built to be tuned either to a 440 Hz A or a 435 Hz A
> (I have one of those old instruments at home), so adopting a 256 Hz 
> standard for middle C would make all existing instruments very sharp.
> Thus the 440 Hz A was settled on as a standard, and the scientific
> scale persists only in the form of tuning forks for physics labs....
> Steve Luzader
This pleasant narrative prompted me to confirm the pitch agreements:
1891 International Pitch A=435
1896 New Philharmonic Pitch A=439
1925 U.S.A Standard Pitch  A=440
(Scientific Pitch A=426.67 from c=256, diatonic)
1939 London International - adopted U.S.A Standard - A=440

from Starling & Woodall "Physics"


brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK