CONCERT PITCH

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 417, 20 June 1947, Page 16

CONCERT PITCH

| The Tuning-Note of Orchestras

Special to "The Listener" by

IAN

COX

through the United |}

Kingdom Information Service.

T is a commonplace that ail members of an orchestra must be agreed on the correct pitch for their instruments before they start playing; that is why the rehearsal starts with the conductor

asking some instrumentalist (usually an oboe player) to give an 4. Now A is simply a name for a note in the treble stave, and in practice has by no means always been the same _ note. From the 14th to the 17th Centuries A wandered over a range of nearly 200 cycles per second (374 to 567 c.p.s.); in the 18th and 19th Centuries, when the use of orchestras was developing rapidly, the range was perforce greatly reduced, but there was still consider-

able variation; even in the first quarter of our century there were still several well-recognised but quite distinct pitches. The disadvantages of such a situation have, of course, been long recognised, but it was not until 1939 that an international standard of concert pitch was agreed on by the countries principally concerried, and then, with the outbreak of war, it was

too late to put it into general practice immediately. The other week, however, "the British Broadcasting Corporation took a lead by adopting the new standard A (440 c.p.s.) as the tuning note of its Third Programme (583 and 1474 kilocycles), believing that by providing such a datum for practising musicians and instrument. manufacturers, interest will be maintained in the new standard and that it may thus be prevented from falling into disuse. The tuning note itself is produced by an oscillator, and its frequency is accuratelv controlled bv a crvstal. Phvsical

science, then, has come to the aid of the musicians by providing a yardstick which can) be used independently of musical notation; it can describe a note by stating its frequency, and can sound that note precisely and when required without having recourse to such human adjustments as must be made in playing an instrument whose pitch varies with

the temperature and the skill of the performer. It, is told of one of our: bestknowm conductors that once, when the oboe gave the orchestra a tuning A more than usually full’of vibrato, he ‘said, "There you are, gentlemen; take; your choice." But even discounting such human variation, there is no doubt that on a cold morning such wind instruments cannot start by giving an A that satisfies éven the player himself. The brass instruments are even more susceptible to pitch varying with temperature change. The BBC’s intention to use an oscillator to give orchestras their A as well as a programme tuning-note should therefore be very welcome. The hew international standard of 440 c.p.s. was agreed on by France, Germany, Britain, Holland and Italy at a meeting of a specially-appointed committee of the International Standards Association, which is a federation of national standardising bodies in the countries concerned. In Great Britain, for example, the Standards Institution has been responsible for publishing 800 standards, applicable to such widely different things’ as screw threads, automobile. wheels, colours, mathématical symbols, and electric fences. It's Hotter in the Hall The principal European countries had agreed in 1885 to adopt the French standard called ‘"Diapason Normal" (A equals 435 c.p.s.), but the disadvantage of this was that the Government tuningforks were standardised at room temperature (59 degrees F.) and musicians came to believe that all instruments should be in tune with these (and with each other) at that température. Unfortunately, however, the average temperature of the concert hall is well above this; and since some instruments rise in pitch with a rise in temperature, while others (stich as the piano and the tuning fork itself) do not, considerablé confusion resulted. By the end of the century, then, Continental orchestras were using pitches more like 439 or 440 c.p.s. At that time the English concert pitch was as high as 452.4 c.p.s. — so high, in fact, that Patti refused at Covent Garden to conform with it and persuaded the management to use Continental pitch.: = In 1896 Britain adopted the so-called "New Philharmonic Pitch". of A equals 439 e¢.p.s., which approximately represents a correction of Diapason Normal to a more practical temperature. Even within my own memory, however, there were still three well-recognised pitches to. which one could have one’s piano cnet. Se y The makers of wind instruments, of course, welcome the adoption of the now international. standard A. because-for almost 40° years in Britain alone. they. have had to, make and stock all instru-. ments in two standard pitches-the so-° called "Old. Military Pitch" and the newer Fleet Pitch used by full military bands and orchestras. In miusical education, too, the ‘value of standardising the pitch is likely to be | considerable, because in the course of a few years a young generation of musicians should be produced with a sense of accurate pitch developed by sheer habit. This will give them a great advantage over those brought up in a world of different. pitches when they come .to deal with problems.» connected. with pitch changing at varying temperatures, as is inevitable’ in concert work, | The responsibility of all broadcasting organisations in maintaining standard inj performance is therefore very real.