Concert Pitch

**Menschenstimme** · 05-13-2012, 04:33 PM

I have been advised that current concert pitch is actually "A" 442 rather than 440. Why? Is this slight difference even discernable? If I tuned one "A" pipe on an organ to 440 and another to 442 and played them together, would the beats be slow, like a celeste? Slower? Faster?

**indianajo** · 05-13-2012, 05:29 PM

Beat frequency between two frequencies is f1-f2. So two organ pitches 2 hz apart will beat at 2 hz. The celeste on my Hammond is about 3 hz, but don't know anything about pipe organs, alas.
That oracle of all wisdom, the liner notes on commercial albums, says orchestras go to higher pitch for "greater brilliance". I suppose they mean the string instrument overtones, as my bassoon got fewer overtones the more I pinched the reed. I'm sure there are 10000 other opinions. When I fantasized about buying a Heckel bassoon at the factory in Mannheim?(atlas misplaced) they wanted me to pencil in the pitch on the order form. They were sure I could get all my questions answered by "my teacher". I hadn't had a bassoon teacher in 14 years, lacking as I did a bassoon.

**myorgan** · 05-13-2012, 07:32 PM

Recently, when I played with the Symphony last, the conductor had the orchestra tune to the Oboe for non-organ pieces, and to the organ for pieces with organ. The organ is at 440, but I felt like the orchestra was tuning higher to the Oboe. I've only seen it recently, and it appears to be a trend among young conductors to add "energy" and "life" to their performances.

As to the actual effect of all this? The jury's out. However, don't forget that A-440 did not become standard until the middle of the 20th century. I have a grand piano from the 1800s, and the entire piano is tuned ½-step low. Broke a string or two trying to get it up to A-440 before I remembered.

Michael

**davidecasteel** · 05-14-2012, 12:15 AM

I think back in the 1800s that orchestras tuned to A=425 and the "standard" was slowly raised to 440 over the years. I think the 425 value is close to what A would be if C=256 (which is a power of 2), and that may have had some influence on selecting that value back then.