Pitch in Paris ca. 1860

[Calin Tantareanu]

Well, I'm just trying to establish a likely pitch for my piano. It certainly 
feels good at 440, and with the info I've gotten so far, it looks like 
Pleyel's pitch at the time was even higher. The short scale of the piano 
supports this conclusion.

 Calin Tantareanu
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 http://calintantareanu.tripod.com
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: <custos3@comcast.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 12:09 AM
Subject: Pitch in Paris ca. 1860


>I believe that the pitch situation in Paris around 1860 was a total mess. 
>As far as I know, the Paris Grand Opera had its own pitch, the Opera 
>Comique had its own pitch and a third opera house (whose name I do not 
>remember) had yet another pitch. In addition, the military bands used their 
>own pitch and the church had yet another pitch. That's a total of five 
>"standards". I don't know what they were, but anyone who played a piano 
>with an orchestra or instruments of fixed pitch  simply had to have the 
>piano tuned to whatever pitch the wind instruments being used were at. 
>Trying to duplicate mid 19th century pitch in Paris is most likely a 
>hopeless task - whose pitch?
>
> The Pleyels and the Erards had to build pianos that could go up and down 
> in pitch as needed.  As did all piano builders of this era. As to what the 
> range was - that I don't know... A good guess would be somewhere between 
> 420 and 435 - though other  pitches (even above 440) are not unknown in 
> this time...
>
> It is probably foolish to think in terms of "standard pitch" (even for a 
> locality) much before the late 19th century - it simply was not a 
> realizable concept.
>
> Israel Stein