Klarinet Archive - Posting 000233.txt from 1998/09

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Short barrels
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 18:30:56 -0400

At 11:41 PM 9/5/98 -0000, Roger Garrett wrote:

> The orchestras I described in my last post have used the same pitch [you
> seem to be referring here to A=442], we believe, for over two hundred
> years. That does not represent a trend, nor does it represent an
> arbitrary decision. In fact, the European musical community could very
> well call the American A440 an "arbitrary decision" and label it an
> American "trend."

The reading and study I have done on the history of tuning and temperament
seems to indicate that neither of the two assertions about can be
substantiated. In Europe, as well as America and much of the rest of the
world, the standard pitch varied so much from area to area, and changed so
often, that each city could have its own pitch standard.

Quoting from "The Acoustical Foundations of Music" by John Backus,
first edition, published in 1969 by W. W. Norton, pp. 131 - 33:

"Over the years the frequency of the standard A has gone up. [from
Handel's A@-----.5, for example] The reason for this rise is still not
established. It appears that those instruments, such as the strings, that
can tune to any pitch gain an advantage in "brightness" if they are tuned
sharp with respect to those instruments, such as the woodwinds, that must
be built to a fixed standard of pitch. Whatever the reason, toward the
end of the nineteenth century the standard A had gone as high as 455
cycles per second in England and even up to 461 cycles per second in the
United States. At one period in England there were even two different
standards of pitch in use, and the instruments that could be used for one
pitch could not be used for the other."

"A change in the standard of pitch imposes considerable difficulties on
musicians and particularly on the manufacturers of musical instruments, so
a fixed standard is essential. Various attempts were made to establish a
standard, and finally in 1953 in International Standards Organization
[meeting in Switzerland, as I understand it - EL] recommended the adoption
of A-440 as the standard frequency throughout the world."

No longer quoting: 1953 may seem a very long time ago to the younger
members of the list, but it is a mere blink of the eye in the entire
history of music. At that time, I was in high school, and the can state
that the A@-----. Many if not
all American and European instrument manufacturers had already adopted
that tuning, and the high school bands in which I played always tried to
tune to that pitch. Now, back to Backus:

"Unfortunately, the recommendations of acousticians are usually ignored,
so there still exists pressure to increase the frequency of A. [Here he
lists several examples.] A change from 440 to 444 cycles per second
amounts to about 16 cents, and is not negligible; if an instrument is
constructed to play in tune at A=440, its intonation will suffer if it is
shortened to play at A@-----."

"There is no lasting benefit to be gained from raising the standard of
pitch; rather, it is a never-ending process. If the strings tune sharper
than the woodwinds for added 'brightness" or whatever, the woodwind
players will naturally play sharper to compensate. This will cause the
strings to go still higher. The woodwinds will again try to follow, but
there is a limit to the pitch change that they can accommodate;
eventually, they will have to be built to a new pitch standard. This
settle nothing, however; the whole cycle now starts over again."

"It is to the ultimate advantage of musicians everywhere to keep the
standard at the recommended value of A@-----. Amy attempt to raise this
standard for any short-term gain in "brightness" or whatever else should
be resisted as pernicious and contrary to musicians' best interests."

I can't say it any better than that.

Ed Lacy
*****************************************************************
Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
el2@-----.edu (812)479-2754
*****************************************************************

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