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Re: A question of pitch and scale

Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2015-04-16 17:13

"The more things change, the more they stay the same." The musical press in the 1880s was full of questions, answers, counter-answers and fights about pitch standards. For instance, in the 1880s, pitch in France was half a tone flatter than pitch in England. Concert C in London sounded like B-flat in Paris.

High pitch in England drove operatic tenors and sopranos wild, of course. English tenor Sims Reeves made a crusade of the subject. He refused or reneged on gigs when the conductor insisted on high pitch. Reeves devoted big chunks of his two autobiographies to his pitched battles. Wind players who travelled understandably objected to being forced to purchase and maintain separate sets of instruments for opposite sides of the Channel.

Today it seems we're on the verge of chaos once more, with the increasing fragmentation of international standards meant to resolve the worst of the discrepancies.

Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
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