There is a trick to lowering the pitch of woodwind instruments by up to a semitone which I do not think has been mentioned here. About 60 years ago my father gave me a simple-system clarinet that he had bought in a junk shop. It's music clip on the central joint indicated that it had come from a military band, and the pitch was up around 465-470. My uncle, an experienced clarinetist, pointed out that if you suspended a length of thin rope down the full length of the bore, the pitch would be lowered uniformly, ie without spoiling the tuning. In this case the required diameter turned out be around 4-5mm. Worked a treat, but didn't stop me taking up the guitar instead.
>----Original Message---- >From: howardpos...@ca.rr.com >Date: 19/01/2016 1:08 >To: "Lute List" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> >Subj: [LUTE] Pitch > >On Jan 18, 2016, at 1:27 PM, William Brohinsky <tiorbin...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Is there a reference for these dates/numbers, especially the claim that A440 was 'set' in 1916 for American Standard Pitch for pianos? >> >> In 30 years of piano tuning, I've seen many claims, but I am unaware of an American organization with the power to declare standard pitch for pianos operating before the International Organization for Standards (the dyslexic ISO) meetings in 1938 and 1939 (dates muddied by the generally poor accuracy of Groves 2), and even then, ISO had to re- affirm A440 in 1959 and 1979, apparently because a lot of organizations weren't willing to give up that little bit of "brightness" that tuning a few Hertz higher brings. > >Reference pitch above A 440 is pretty common among professional orchestras. The Los Angeles Philharmonic tunes to 442. I think the Berlin Phil is higher. > >> Scheibler, credited with the invention of tuning forks, > >That would be John Shore (1662-1752), trumpeter extraordinaire (and lutenist ordinaire). Scheibler invented the tonometer, essentially an array of tuning forks, useful for determining the otherwise unknown pitch of some external sound (like, for example, Shore’s tuning fork) > >> recommended A440. 0, and the Deutsche Naturforscherversammlung established that as the German Standard in 1834. Steinway's pitchforks indicate that they favored A454.7 in London and 457.2 in NY in 1897. >> >> The French government decreed that A435 was standard for that nation in 1859. This was supposed to be a compromise between the extremes of A450, favored by instrumentalists for brightness, and singers, who preferred A422. In England, near the end of the 19th century, the London Royal Philharmonic Society jiggered the numbers for a higher standard pitch, since France had specified a specific build of oboe, playing A in a room at 59degF. They calculated that a piano, tuned to that pitch, but operating at "normal" room temperature of 68degF would rise to 438.9 Hz, so when 1900 rolled around, A435 and A439 were standards in France and England, respectively. > >The London Philharmonic played at around A458 for much of the 1800’s, and I don’t think it would have dropped all at once in 1900. This was about a half-tone sharper than French pitch. There’s an odd story Shaw related in 1891 about the problems the pitch difference caused, dating from when he was a “small boy” (i. e. before about 1869), which would mean it happened in Dublin. I don’t give much credit to the part about the woodwind players being willing to play a half-tone flat (though they could have transposed a half- tone, like a bassoonist I knew years ago who had the only remaining modern instrument in a group that was converting to period instruments at A415), or the part about the washer in the clarinet; Shaw was relying on a childhood memory, and he never played a wind instrument. You can find it at: > >https://books.google.com/books?id=Hnh0G2wrJvsC&pg=PA292&lpg=PA292&dq=%22george+bernard+shaw%22+pitch+Philharmonic&source=bl&ots=vlDQNTFJUF&sig=jRsbcpEh1vnVGzaC50N8lV-JF7w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjuufWPv7TKAhUQ0mMKHekJBKYQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=%22george%20bernard%20shaw%22%20pitch%20Philharmonic&f=false > > >Or just type: > >“George Bernard Shaw” pitch Philharmonic > >into google and click on > >The Clarinet - Page 292 - Google Books Result > >which should be at the top of the results > >> Generally speaking, I've found that pianos built before 1940 tend to gravitate to A438 even when tuned above or below that pitch, and have read numerous articles intended for piano tuners (none of which I still have) claiming that before the ISO proclamation, A438 was the preferred pitch for American piano makers. Whether that is true or not, I can't find any official organization which selected A440 before the ISO meetings of 1938 and/or 1939. >> >> So ... Who set A440 as standard for American Pianos in 1916? > >Probably nobody. If you’re going to standardize pitch, you need to start with the instruments that are least flexible. A piano can be tuned to any pitch within reason but a fairly small upward or downward variation will cause all but the best woodwind players to play out of tune. And of course, glockenspiel, celesta, xylophone et al can’t change pitch at all. > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html> To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
