At 05:38 PM 3/12/97 -0500, you wrote: >In a message dated 97-03-11 19:21:24 EST, you write: >I once tuned for a guy who asked if I would mind using his A435 fork. i said >sure, no problem and started to tune. About half way thru, my curiousity got >the best of me, and asked why. He replied with a straight face, that it was >the lawful pitch. According to him, when A440 was established as a the >standard, (in Paris I guess) it had never been properly ratified. Therefore, >he wanted the "legal" pitch. Upon further questioning it turned out that his >wife was running on the State ticket for office. These people belonged to the >"LaRouche" party. A sort of single issue type of party that caused the >Democrats here a lot of embarrasment when the finagled thier way onto the >primary ballot. I could just see him in power, running around town with >jackboots and a frequency counter. Sam G. Chicago. Dear Sam and the list, A few years ago in 1993 a woman asked me to tune her piano to C-512 (C-256). At the time I only had a C-261 tuning fork and an A-440 fork. So she gave me the address of the Schiller Institute and I ordered a C-512 fork. The woman also loaned me a book called _A_Manual_on_the_Rudiments_of_Tuning_and_Registration__Book_I: _Introduction_and_Human_Singing_Voice_, which was commisioned by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. Quoting from a brochure promoting the book: "Using over three hundred musical examples, the book proves that Classical music must be pitched at C = 256 Hz (A = 427-432 Hz), as proposed in the Schiller Institute petition to the Italian Parliament to this effect, now signed by hundreds of famous musicians." "It does this by demonstrating that all music is based upon the human singing voice, whose physiological registers only function at the lawful C = 256 pitch." .... "Part I of Book I contains LaRouche's grounbreaking essay on "Natural and Artistic Beauty," as well as a geometrical demonstration that the C = 256 tuning is coherent with the harmonic organization of the physical universe, drawing upon a survey which reaches from Kepler's _Harmony of the Worlds_ through modern biological evidence." The book is 260 pages long, and it has been 4 years since I read the book, so I am not prepared to give any more complete discussion of this topic. I believe however that the term "lawful" refers to some sort of natural order or natural law. I am not part of the LaRouche party, but if you are interested in learning more on this topic, I would suggest contacting the Schiller Institute, P.O. Box 66082, Washington, D.C. 20035-6082, and I am sure that they would explain in more detail. At least they would be happy to sell you a book! At the time, the woman's piano had not been tuned in so long, that her piano was flat enough that it was just a hair sharp of the C-512 fork. Since that time, she has not had her piano tuned again (at least not tuned by me) so I am sure that her piano is not at the "lawful" pitch anymore. I have never again had occasion to use the C-512 fork! The woman was mightily impressed by the aluminum C-512 fork that the Schiller Institute sent. It was very large, and you could hear it all the way across the room. Thanks to the recent article in the JOURNAL, I now know that aluminum forks are not as stable as steel tuning forks. So even if her piano was tuned precisely at C-512, if I breathed on the tunng fork too much, it probably wasn't tuned right on the correct pitch anyway! Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only. I am not a member of the LaRouche party. I am not attempting to make the "lawful" pitch C-256. This post is not to be used for the purposes of inciting debate or riots or wars. I just thought that the information was germane to the topic at hand. Sincerely, David P.S. Please send all flames to my personal e-mail address! David A. Vanderhoofven Associate Member, PTG Joplin, Missouri, USA e-mail: dkvander@clandjop.com web page: http://www.clandjop.com/~dkvander/ #pianotech page: http://www.clandjop.com/~dkvander/ircpiano.html
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC