Klarinet Archive - Posting 000401.txt from 1998/09

From: "Mark Charette" <charette@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Pitch standards
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 00:48:54 -0400

Dan wrote

>In reading many of the interesting remarks about this or that
>orchestra establishing its pitch standard at A=442 or 440 or whatever,
>I am reminded that a pitch standard must contain two elements. One
>is vibrations per second of some standard device, this being the
>one that has been given by everyone so far. But the other is the
>temperature of the room in with that number of vibrations per second
>will occur.
>
>Thus, one uses a pitch standard of A=442 at a temperature of 72 degrees
>farenheit, or A=338 at a temperature of 15 degrees centigrade or
>whatever.
>
>I presume that the St. Louis symphony's pitch standard of A=442
>would be meaningless if the temperature of the room in which they
>were tuning up was 32 degrees farenheit.

Dan,
I'm at a loss here. If in fact a pitch standard is set at a'=440, where
does temperature come into effect? It is a vibrational standard only.
The currently adopted _standard_ of a'=440 (in 1939) is irrespective of
temperature; while the setting of an orchestra's tuning pitch may be
other than a'=440 for physical reasons (including that of temperature),
we can only say that they are tuning to something other than the
standard; say, 2 Hz above or 2 Hz below the _standard_. If otherwise (if
the _standard_ is allowed to vary) then there would be no such thing as
a standard at all.

You can have a pitch standard of 442 Hz, but to call it a' would be
incorrect. It could only be called a vibrational standard of 442 Hz or a
standard vibrating 2 Hz faster than the official standard of a'@-----.
An orchestra may call it A, may finger it as A, may huff and puff and
whatever - but it isn't the official a'; at least, not until a
contentious bunch of grumpy people decide to call a'@-----. _Then_
A'@-----.
----
Mark Charette@-----.org
Webmaster, http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet
"There can be no freedom without discipline." - Nadia Boulanger

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