Pitch

[John Delacour]

At 5:23 PM -0800 1/10/02, Robert Wilson wrote:

>Joe,
>How can you say that,  Chopin heard all his music a
>semi-tone flat by today's standards.  How can you say
>it isn't just as beautiful at the pitch he knew?

With A at 415 c/s ?!  Who told you that?

1834 -- Paris Conservatoire fork -- 435.4 c/s

>I learned on a Victorian piano at old pitch, and accepted that it 
>was a semi-tone flat.

Which "old pitch".  Almost every pitch in the world by 1870 was 
sharper than A=440.  In London 1878, Collard tuned at 449.9, Erard at 
455.3, Steinway at 454.7 and Chappell at 455.9 -- or roughly "Old 
Philharmonic"

The Victorian age witnessed a steady RISE in pitch to an unacceptable 
level which was finally brought down by international agreement.

Don't take my word for it; read the long and detailed appendix in Helmholtz.

JD