Terry Ferrell wrote: > Prior to electronics - let's say more than 100 years ago - or even 150 > years ago - what was used to calibrate a tuning fork? Since nobody has made a serious effort to answer the original question, I will take a shot at it. The tuning fork was invented about 1711, but it wasn't until about 1830 that the idea of quantifying pitch in units remotely like cycles per second (cps) came to be considered. It wasn't until about 1887 that Heinrich Hertz quantified radio waves in such units. Prior to that, the unit of measurement of musical pitch was "feet," i.e. the length of pipe (as used in a pipe organ) that would produce a particular pitch. The ratios of musical intervals, such as 1:2 for an octave, had long been understood, based on these ratios derived from lengths of organ pipes. An eight foot pipe sounds an octave lower than a four foot pipe, etc. Pitch "standards" could have varied by 4-5 semi-tones within a single European town. Having dozens of musicians playing in ensemble is a relatively modern concept. In the days when pitch standards were so ill defined, most musical ensemble performances rarely involved more than 5 or 6 instrumental players. Prior to electronics, and after the invention of tuning forks, they would have been calibrated to organ pipes, or a more portable "pitch pipe," with a range of tolerance of 400-500 cents, as we might quantify it today. Frank Emerson
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