Klarinet Archive - Posting 000170.txt from 1994/10

From: Fred McKenzie <Frederick.McKenzie-1@-----.GOV>
Subj: Re: the Clarinet d'amour
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 10:00:44 -0400

RE>>the Clarinet d'amour
Cary Karp stated:
A415 is pretty much of a myth. There were several pitches in use during
the "Baroque" and if a single one were to be adopted for general use in
period instrumental contexts it could justifiably be argued to be
significantly lower than 415.

Cary-

Could it be as low as 392 Hz? It seems to me that discussions of old
instrument pitch have an inherent ambiguity. If you use a historically claimed
pitch without knowing what the prevailing standard was, you risk an error in
the order of one or two semitones.

In today's world, would it be more correct to call the instrument pitched in
A=415, an A-Flat instrument? Someone suggested that extending an instrument to
a lower bottom note, caused a change in the quality or character of its sound.
So, you need to know the true pitch in order to compare it with modern
instruments.

Fred