On 3/19/09, Paul T Williams <pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu> wrote:
> Certainly. And 100 years ago they all had perfect pitch at A435.
>
> Paul
Depends where and when...
>From my old research, mostly from Alexander Ellis, you had a LOT of leeway.
Formatting may not follow real well, but you should get the idea.
These are all pitches of "A".
Current A=440Hz, 12tet scale names and pitches thrown in for comparison.
Church Pitch Lowest
370 Ideal Lowest
374 Hospice Comtesse 1700
377 Schlick low 1511
" Bedos de Celles 1766
Church Pitch Low
391 Strasburg Cathedral Silbermann Organ 1714
391.995 G
392 St Petersburg Euler Clavichord 1739
395 Cambridge Trinity College Organ/Father Smith 1759
396 Versailles Organ 1789
DeCaus 1615
Chamber Pitch Low
400 Paris Opera 1700
403 Mersenne Spinet 1648
407 Paris Spinet by Sauveur 1713
408 Matteson, Hamburg 1762
409 Paris Court Clavecins (Pascal Taskin) 1783
414.4 Breslau Clavichord (Marpurg) 1776
European Mean Pitch for two centuries
415 Dresden Silbermann Organ 1722
415.305 G#
420 Freiberg 1714
" Seville 1785
421.6 Mozart's piano (from Stein's fork) 1780
422.5 Haendel's tuning fork 1751
422.6 Lille, France 1754
422.7 Broadwood 1800
423 Westminster Abbey Organ 1820
" Paris Theatre Feydeau 1820
423.2 Dresden, Band of the Opera 1815 21
423.3 Philharmonic Society 1813
424 Praetorius suitable pitch 1619
424.1 Eutin, Germany 1740
424.2 Paris Italian Opera 1823
425 Paris Italian Opera 1829
425.8 Paris Grand Opera 1824
427.1 Paris Grand Opera 1811
427.6 Paris Theatre Feydeau 1823
428 Renatus Harris Organ 1696
430 Paris (M Lemoine) 1810
431.5 Paris Opera 1828
Compromise Pitch
433 Sir George Smart's tuning fork 1828
Broadwood 1820
433.9 Vienna Opera 1834
Concurrent Scheibler forks: 436.5 \
439.4 \
440.3 > 1834
441.1 /
445.1 /
434 Paris Grand Opera 1834
435 French Diapason (tuning fork) Normal 1859
" International 1892
" Dresden, Band of the Opera 1825 30
" Karlsruhe - Jos. Strauss 1859
435.4 Philharmonic Society 1828
436 St Petersburg Opera 1796
438 Paris Theatre Feydeau 1829
439 New Philharmonic 1896
=== Modern Orchestral Pitch and Ancient Medium Church Pitch =====
440 A American Federation of Musicians 1917
" U.S. Government 1920
" Associated Music Industries 1925
" International Standard 1939
" Paris Conservatoire 1812
" Dresden Opera 1862
440.2 Scheibler's Stuttgart Standard 1834
441 Covent Garden Opera 1878
" Paris Grand Opera 1836
" Paris Italian Opera 1836
" Paris Theatre Feydeau 1836
441.8 Berlin Opera 1834
442 Hampton Court Palace 1690
" Bernhardt Schmidt low 1690
442.4 Érard Paris 1899
443.3 Paris Woelfel pianofortes 1836
444 Paris Cavaillé Coll organ 1859
444.6 London St Paul's Cathedral Organ 1877
445 Madrid 1858
445.9 Broadwood's medium pitch 1849 54
446 Paris - Pleyel pianos 1854
447 Vienna Opera 1878
" Paris Opera 1858
448 Hamburg Opera 1839
449 Leipzig Gewandhaus 1859
" Paris Conservatoire 1853
450 Covent Garden Orchestra 1879
451 British & Belgian Instrument Std 1879
452 London International Exhibition 1885
452.5 Philharmonic Society 1846 54
455 London Philharmonic (highest) 1874
455.3 Érard,Broadwood,Steinway,Brinsmead 1880
456.1 Vienna, old sharp pitch (Streicher piano) 1834
457.2 American Steinway 1890
Church Pitch High
458 Great Franciscan Organ, Vienna 1640
461.6 Highest U.S. Concert Pitch 1800's
466.164 A#
474 Tomkins 1668
" B. Schmidt, high 1683
481 St Catherine's, Hamburg 1543
489 St James, Hamburg Schnitger Organs 1688
Church Pitch Highest
493.883 B
494 St James, Hamburg 1879
496 Rendsburg 1668
504 Arnold Schlick high 1511
506 Halberstadt Cathedral 1361
522.5 Handel's tuning fork 1751
523.251 C
554.365 C#
Chamber Pitch Highest
563 Mersenne, ton de chambre 1636
567 Pretorius 1619
587.33 D
--
Conrad Hoffsommer, RPT
Luther College
Decorah, IA
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC