|
|
Pitch (music),
highness or lowness of a musical tone as determined by the rapidity of the
vibrations producing it. Standards of exact pitch have varied over the centuries.
During the Renaissance, woodwind instruments usually were built so that
A above middle C was about 446 Hz (vibrations or cycles per second), that
is, about a quarter step higher than modern A. The pitches of organs varied
widely, however. Woodwind instrument builders during the late 17th century,
using the pitch of Parisian organs, effectively set the standard for the
following century at about A = 415, or about a half step below modern pitch.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, wind instruments for use in bands
and orchestras were built to increasingly higher pitch specifications, reaching
about A = 452 (Old Philharmonic Pitch) by the mid-19th century. Various
efforts were made to fix the scale of pitch, the most influential being
that of a French commission of musicians and scientists who met in 1858-59.
This commission reported in favor of A = 435, the widely used French pitch.
In 1887 this was formally adopted by the Vienna Congress, an international
conference on pitch, and is now often called international pitch, or diapason
normal. French pitch was not universally accepted, however, and Britain
and the United States eventually adopted A = 440, which remains their standard
pitch in the 20th century, despite some pressure to move it upward.
|
_off.gif){kind=small}
