A-440 Policy?

[Rolf von Walthausen & Nancy Larson]

Newton Hunt wrote:

> If I am paid well enough I will do anything unless unethical
> or immoral.  Well, unethical anyway.

Newton, I am inspired to respond:)...

As far as standard pitch policy goes, my own choice has been to quietly
evolve a policy of "floating" A=440.  On its face that may sound
ridiculous, but all considered one that seems to accommodate most types
of performance situations and halls I regularly service.  I would even
go so far to say that this concept seems to create more stable,
predictable results over time.  (I have to qualify this by saying that
on the occasions I find myself a hired gun in a new venue or sitting in
for someone else I will tune to whatever the contract/hall/technician
specifies, no matter what the situation or "cost"....).  It does mean
however that sometimes, when the curtain goes up, the piano may be at
440.5 or even 441 (heavens!).  But it will never be LOWER than 440 -- a
standard that, given the types of circumstances and constraints under
which most of us work, might be an appropriate policy to consider
adopting.

This 'evolution' in the practice of deciding where to set pitch started
when I worked for an institution that at the time employed mostly
adjunct wind faculty from a major symphony orchestra whose standard
pitch was 441.   The players, following orchestra rehearsal in the
morning, would begin teaching at the Conservatory after lunch.  They
would always complain that the pianos were flat (not surprising given
that they started at 441 and likely were playing at 442-443 by the end
of the rehearsal).  Due to the circumstances I decided to begin a policy
of floating pitch between 440-442 from winter/summer seasons making 441
a sort of standard average pitch.  Interestingly no one complained, and
the pianos remained much more stable (and at least 440) over longer
periods of time.  Looking back it was rare to have fielded complaints
that a piano was too sharp; however, woe if the piano was even a tenth
of a cent FLAT of 440!  Which brings me to the crux of this immoral idea
of "floating" standard pitch...

No one has mentioned yet the vagaries and effects of climate and
not-so-subtle temperature & humidity fluctuations common in so many
performance halls.  Maybe I'm alone in this, but most of the performing
venues I service on a regular basis are not climate (humidity)
controlled.  Even the ones that do have relatively good climate control
routinely turn off the air conditioning , or turn down the heat, at
night; sometimes the stage lights are accidentally left on; sometimes
the weather outside changes radically hour-to-hour; sometimes the piano
'sleeps' in the basement after being lowered onto the pit and into a
storage room.  Which means between the time one tunes in the morning
prior to rehearsal and returns that afternoon following sound check, the
overall pitch can easily vary 4-5 cents in either direction.  Add to the
mixture hot stage lights and the dumping backstage of hot/cold outside
air to help control the on-stage comfort levels for performers, the
overall pitch level could vary as much as 7-8 cents over a period of a
few hours.  Such situations require one to become a sort of human
barometer and predictor of future changes.  All too often there is
potential -- under the heat of lights, electronic equipment and bodies
-- for the pitch to fall below 440.  And depending on changes in
temperature, humidity, weather conditions and time of day, most concert
instruments go through a pitch cycle.  If it's cool and damp in the
morning I'll leave the piano at 441.5 and by show time the piano is
close to 440.  If it's hot inside and the air conditioning has yet to
cycle on I'll leave the piano slightly flat so by sound check the piano
can simply be touched up and left a little high of 440.  And so on as
the cycle goes.  Good musicians intuitively adapt; most don't even
notice.

One theater I service has a C7 that will drop 4-5 cents after the stage
lights are turned on; in another hall there's a D which varies in pitch
only slightly and uniformly so, while the tenor section of another D
(same hall) will climb or fall at a markedly different rate and so needs
pitch adjustment more often; and then there's an SD-10 that never seems
to change pitch or go out of tune except after a prolonged climate
shift.

In this way I find setting pitch to be more art than science.  All
things considered -- given the real constraints of available time, money
and climate control that many of us face -- the bottom line for me is
that I often chose to favor stability and consistency of an average
pitch closely above 440 over an exactly accurate 24-hr./day pitch
standard of A=440.   Visiting orchestras that request 442 can adapt to
something closer to 441; a wind ensemble used to playing at 440 can tune
a little higher.   But there does seem to be a consensus out there that
anything below 440 is wrong.  So along with being part weatherman, part
psychic, and part record keeper of the unique ways in which each
particular instrument responds to environmental changes, the standard I
strive for (and that seems to please, or can be made to please without
major pitch adjustments, the largest constituency) is the stability of a
fleet of instruments over time at a pitch level of at least 440
(translation: more often than not the instruments here will be found to
cycle closer to 441 than 440. Just don't tell anyone:)

Here's to being immoral.

Rolf von Walthausen
Interlochen Center for the Arts