Andrew, Thanks for the detailed information!
**Leigh On Tue, Apr 19, 2005, Andrew Stiller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >Ok, first of all, there is no different standard. The A-440 standard >was adopted because in ages when instrumental music dominates, there >is a constant pressure to raise the pitch because instruments sound >more brilliant at higher pitches. Without regulation, the result is >pitch inflation to uncomfortably high levels. Since A 440 was adopted >as an international standard (by convention, not by law) ca. 100 yrs. >ago, pitch inflation has been successfully capped--but it has not been >abolished. A great many orchestras play sharp by small amounts, and >this is what your friend seems to have encountered in Europe--though >believe me, he could have easily found it in this country too. > >You're wrong about past pitch standards too. Instruments first came to >the fore in the 16th century, and the resulting pitch inflation got so >bad that by 1610 pitch was fully a minor third higher than it is today >(Praetorius, for example, gives C below the bass staff as the standard >bottom note for choral basses). Singers were going hoarse trying to >sing old music at the notated pitches, and string players were snapping >strings when they tuned up. To get around this, competing Chorton and >Kammerton pitch standards were adopted for different types of >ensembles. The two came back together in the late 18th c. (exactly how >has never been clear to me), but pitch inflation persisted, and had >once more become troublesome by the mid-19th c. A series of commissions >settled on A-440 as a compromise, and that's how it's been ever since. >(And since someone's bound to mention it, yes I know that the US held >out for C-256 for many years after everyone else adopted A-440--but >eventually we came round, and the end result is unity on a single >standard. Watch for a similar outcome in RE the metric system.) > >There is, BTW, a short-wave radio station that does nothing but >broadcast a continuous A-440 worldwide as the embodiment of the >standard. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
