Tuning to A 440, or something else

[David Houck]

I didn't realize that orchestras don't all tune to the same pitch.  From Wikipedia:


A = 440 Hz is the only official standard and is widely used around the world. Many orchestras in the United Kingdom adhere to this standard as concert pitch. In the United States some orchestras use A = 440 Hz, while others, such as the New York Philharmonic, use A = 442 Hz. The latter is also often used as a tuning frequency in Europe, especially in Denmark, France, Hungary, Italy, Norway and Switzerland. Nearly all modern symphony orchestras in Germany and Austria and many in other countries in continental Europe (such as Russia, Sweden and Spain) tune to A = 443 Hz. The Boston Symphony Orchestra tunes to A = 441 Hz.

The article also indicates that 440 only became the standard in mid-20th century.  Before that, there was much variation.  There doesn't appear to be any kind of scientific reason for the choice of 440.  A standard was needed, and one was finally chosen.  One that apparently a lot of orchestras, and blues bands, ignore.

[edwin]

Google tuning to 432. There's a whole can of worms!

[hieronymous]

There was a somewhat recent thread about tuning to a frequency other than 440 here:


http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=23147.0


Interesting to hear about the diversity in orchestras now.

[edwardofhuncote]

Rats. Right after I went and bought my first electronic tuner. 

[David Houck]

There was a somewhat recent thread about tuning to a frequency other than 440 here:

http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=23147.0

Thanks for the link.  I did read that thread back then; but my memory loss seems to be progressing right along, and it went unrecalled.

[hankster]

Yup. I worked with guest conductors in university who used non-440 tuning. It actually made a difference- people played differently and the sound was significantly different.

[David Houck]

Yup. I worked with guest conductors in university who used non-440 tuning. It actually made a difference- people played differently and the sound was significantly different.

Interesting.  After reading your post, I did some more reading and found that violin players, especially soloists, liked the higher tuning because it made the instrument sound more brilliant.  The same was said of the sound of the orchestra overall.


But vocalists didn't like the higher tuning, saying that not only was it more difficult, but that it changed the sound of a particular piece of music away from how it was originally written (in the case of 18th and 19th century opera pieces).