International pitch standardaized in 1939 or 1925?

[Israel Stein]

At 05:15 AM 2/5/2008, KeyKat88 at aol.com
  wrote:
>Greetings,
>
>       I read in Reblitz that A-440 was standardized in 1925. I was 
> told by a college music theory instructor that it was 1939. Now, 
> witch year was it really?
>
>Thanks in advance,
>Julia
>Reading, PA

I have been looking with a great deal of amusement at all the 
attempts to answer this question - some a little "warm" some way off 
base and only one - Ron Nossaman's - appreciating the complexity of 
this question. And this is not the only thing about which Reblitz is 
dead wrong. But that's a different issue.

Your music theory instructor is right in that the earliest 
International agreement to standardize pitch at A=440 was achieved at 
an industry conference held in London in 1939 - just before World War 
II broke out. The major push for this standardization came from the 
radio broadcast industry - who organized unsuccessful conferences 
throughout the 1930s. Much resistance came from the French who 
stubbornly clung to their standard of A=435 which was actually 
legislated by the French government in 1859. The British recognized 
standard since 1896 was A=439, so they did not much resist the switch 
to A=440. So far I have not been able to find a definitive date for 
when the very influential American Federation of Musicians switched 
from A=435 (which they touted as their "official" pitch) to A=440 - 
1910 seems awfully early, since materials bearing the designation 
"A=435 - official pitch of the American Federation of Musicians" are 
still found to be distributed in the 1920's. I could go on and on 
listing different pitches in use by different organizations in 
different countries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries - but 
the upshot of all this is that there was nothing resembling an 
agreement to standardize pitch on an international scale (in spite of 
many attempts) until this 1939 conference in London.

Of course this agreement did not mean that the standard was 
universally adopted. This hasn't happened until this day - as many 
American orchestras play at A=441 or A=442, and in Europe some tune 
as high as A=445. And many makers of wind instruments are now 
designing their products to the higher pitches. In spite of the fact 
that the International Organization for Standardization reaffirmed 
the A=440 standard in November 1955 and January 1975. The fact is 
that - as it has done throughout the last 300 years - pitch continues 
to creep up.

But the simple and most accurate answer to the question of when was 
the A=440 pitch standard first adopted INTERNATIONALLY is 1939.

Israel Stein