Klarinet Archive - Posting 000244.txt from 1998/09

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Short barrels
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 22:43:05 -0400

Ed Lacy wrote:
> > "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

No need to re-read.......the last sentence says it all. Pitch was A455!!
Didn't happen overnight my friends........

It's high today, was high in 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990........

Roger Garrett
IWU

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