On 5:11 Uhr David W. Fenton wrote:
When I ordered my own gamba I insisted that it be built for 440 rather than 415, since I'm convinced that 415 is not really historically justified.
It's actually quite simple: 415 was approximately the pitch that Bach used in Leipzig for the church music. That is known because we know what pitch the organ was at (approximately 465Hz) and have the original transposed organ parts. It wasn't exactly 415 (that is just a semitone below a in 440, actually it would be 415.3 in ET).
Pitch in the baroque area was by no means fixed, the French had something around 392Hz, Bach in Köthen apparently had something around 409 Hz, while the church cantatas in Weimar were performed at the high organ pitch around 465Hz. And as far as I know the pitch in England changed dramatically in Purcell's time after they employed some French oboists. As far as I remember this is responsible for the pitch being high in Purcell's early works, but very low for works written later, which can also be seen in the voice parts. This may well not apply to Gamba music, so I am not trying to diagree.
I have played at 440, 415, 465, 392 421 and 430 Hz (baroque/classical violin). Some need some adjusting, some need different top strings, but it does make sense to play music at the approximate pitch it was written for. The sound in Bach's Weimar cantatas is much different from the Leipzig cantatas (and of course the voice parts don't fit well at other pitches). I don't think I have a preference for any pitch it really depends on the music.
Johannes -- http://www.musikmanufaktur.com http://www.camerata-berolinensis.de _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
