Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!calvin.usc.edu!alves
From: alves@calvin.usc.edu (William Alves)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: Transposing early music (was: Perfect Pitch)
Keywords: standard pitch
Message-ID: <31382@usc>
Date: 26 Mar 91 21:27:55 GMT
References: <1991Mar20.154120.24561@eng.umd.edu> <31234@usc> <803@llnl.LLNL.GOV>
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In article <803@llnl.LLNL.GOV> kent@ocfmail.ocf.llnl.gov writes:
>In article <31234@usc> alves@calvin.usc.edu (William Alves) writes:
>>
>>The theory that standard pitch has shifted slowly upward over the years is
>>an oft-repeated myth. There was no standard pitch in Handel's time, nor 
>>really until the twentieth century. Studies of pitch references from 17th,
>>18th, and 19th centuries have revealed that A could be as much as a minor
>>third sharp OR flat of 440. If you did take an average, it would probably
>>come out to about 440.
>
>I don't know about the studies that you mention, but literature that I
>got from a harpsichord manufacturer (Hubbard) states that tuning an old
>harpsichord to A440, using the wire they used then, is impossible, 
>because the wire DOES break.  They (and other manufacturers) recommend
>that the instument be tuned to A415.  Many present day instruments are
>built with a "transposing keyboard" -- the keyboard shifts right a half
>step.  This is so you can play at concert pitch if you desire to.  Since
>early instrument makers could have easily have shifted their keyboards
>if they wanted to, I think there is some truth to the myth.  Early 
>keyboard instruments were clearly manufactured within limits that
>make our current standard pitch impossible.

The main reference, as I said in another post, is Arthur Mendel's "Pitch
in Western Music since 1500" (Acta Musicologica 50/1 1978 pp. 1-93). In
reference to harpsichords in particular, he makes several points:

1) Many existing historical instruments have been reconstructed. These
reconstructions are often based on conflicting assumptions.

2) Knowledge about the material used for the strings is sketchy at best,
and varied from place to place. The tension and pitch for different ma-
terials varied widely. Iron required a great deal more tension than brass
or copper, for example. If inharmonicity is not desirable, then both steel
and iron must have a much greater tension than copper or brass.

A study by J. Barnes of Italian harpsichords in the 17th century found 
variations from a perfect fourth below modern pitch up to modern pitch.

My own experience tuning modern harpsichords with steel strings is that
tuning can easily be varied a minor third or more either way without any
danger of breaking the wire. I cannot say that this was true in the 
baroque, but my inclination is to believe that the manufacturers are 
conservative in their estimate.

Bill Alves