The Establishment of a Standard Pitch

Through what means was the standard pitch established? What force made it possible to establish and maintain a set standard pitch? Out of all groups who were subjected to the contradictions existing in pitch, those confronting the piano tuners were the greatest. It was only natural therefore, that from this source an attempt would be made to reach an agreement on pitch standard.

Upon the occasion of the 15th National Convention of the National Association of Piano Tuners, Inc. at Milwaukee in 1924, its membership passed a resolution calling for the standardization of pitch. It reads as follows:

WHEREAS members of this association are vitally interested in the question of a standard of musical pitch, and
WHEREAS a most deplorable confusion now exists in regard to this standard, as among manufacturers, musicians, tuners and the musical world in general, and further
WHEREAS attempts have been made by various groups to commit the musical world generally to a new standard, therefore be it
RESOLVED that this association, as directly and vitally interested, both theoretically and practically, in this question, declares it to be one which no group save one representing every interest in the world of music - artistic, scientific, and commercial - can possibly be competent to decide; further be it
RESOLVED that this association, desiring to do what it can do to clarify the present dangerous and deplorable confusion in the standard of pitch, hereby directs its president to communicate with the Music Industry Chamber of Commerce, informing that body that this association desires to have called together a national conference representing the interests of manufacturers of all musical instruments, musicians, tuners, and the United States Government, which may explore the whole question and make upon it an authoritive (sic) and final pronouncement to the end that a satisfactory standard of musical pitch may be forever established; lastly be it
RESOLVED that the membership of the National Association of Piano Tuners pledges itself faithfully to observe all technical requirements of such a standard when it has been authoritavely (sic) adopted and established.

Mr. Richard Lawrence, then president of the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce, was so impressed with the importance and the seriousness of the proposal that he appointed a committee to look into the practicality of it and named the president of the National Association of Piano Tuners, Charles Deutchman, as chairman of that committee.

It was indeed an exhaustive study, too long to be recounted here, as to the discussions and meetings that were performed in pursuit of standard pitch. In short, all affected branches of the Music Industries were represented and every possible point of view presented. Questionnaires were mailed out and answers were received with commendable promptness from all affected parties. It was apparent from the first that all concerned were conscious of the importance of the matter and also recognized the great need for action. Considering the vastness of their task, the committee arrived at their proposal in a very short time. Their recommendation? A-440 at 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

However, the labors of the committee were not over, for this same committee was then authorized to supervise the construction of a set of absolutely accurate standard tuning forks for A-440 at 68 Degrees Fahrenheit; said forks to represent the pitch known as A4, being the A above middle C on the keyboard, or the second space of treble clef. These forks were to be three in number - one to be deposited in the U.S. Bureau of Standards in Washington DC, one to be deposited in the central office of the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce, and one with the National Headquarters of the National Association of Piano Tuners, Inc. It was decided that there was need for an additional C fork of the corresponding pitch, rated at 523.23 because of the general practice at that time of most of the tuners of the NAPT using that as its starting point for laying the bearings. The ratings of these master forks was entrusted to Dr. Dayton Miller of the Case School of Applied Sciences, who also was the president of the American Physical Society, whose acoustical laboratory was the most complete in the US for the work at hand. The Case School was also appointed the task of comparison and correction of said forks. It can be said that, to the credit of the entire industry, without exception, they all complied promptly, submitting their forks for corrections.

Instrument makers were forced to spend considerably to make their instruments conform to the new standard. The organ and piano builders, not so much. We do not realize what an enormous task it was to accomplish the standard of musical pitch that we have today, and what they had to go through to complete the task. This article will put into some perspective that task which was successfully implemented.

A Brief History Before the Establishment of Standard Pitch, or Why a Standard Pitch Was So Important

For a clear understanding of the pitch problem, I have outlined a short history of the upward trend of pitch over a period of nearly two centuries. The information up to about 1880 was taken from "Helmoltz's Sensation of Tone". From that time to just prior to the establishment of a standard pitch (1925), I took the data as presented by Richard Kamperman president of the former organization of piano technicians, known as the National Association of  Piano Tuners to create the following scenario:

"The members of the National Association of Piano Tuners (NAPT), were the authors of the resolution that brought about the end of the chaos that existed in the matter of musical pitch prior to June 11, 1925.

"Historical pitches from the lowest to the highest: (there were other pitches used during these periods, but the following pitches exerted influence only at their particular institutions and on persons in the same musical environment). It is interesting to note the steady rise of pitch of the various tuning forks.

PITCH                 YEAR              DESCRIPTION

A-384.3                1700               A tuning fork of an early church, origin unknown.

A-423.5                1751               Fork of Handel

A-415.0                1754               Roman Catholic church organ in Dresden.

A-420.1                1780               Winchester College organ.

A-421.6                1780               Fork of Stein, who made Mozart's pianos and forks.

A-424.6                1800               Dr. Steiner's fork, used in Plymouth Theater

A-427.0                1811               Paris Grand Opera

A-433.0               1820               London fork, approved by Sir Geo. Smart, conductor of Philharmonic concerts.

A-434.0                1829              Paris Opera.
A-435.0                1829              Dresden Opera.
A-436.5                1834              Vienna Opera.
A-440.2                1834              Stuttgart pitch, Scheibler fork.
A-436.0                1846              London Philharmonic.
A-435.4                1859              Pitch adopted by Vienna congress.
A-443.5                1859              Brunswick opera.
A-435.9                1868              Mason & Hamlin's French pitch, also Ritchie's standard pitch (USA)
A-448.2                1869              Leipzig, official fork of Society of Arts.
A-437.3                1872              Pitchler's fork, tuned pianos for the Berlin opera.
A-451.1                1874              Belgian Army pitch, in 1880, Chickering's standard NY pitch.
A-455.1                1877              Wagner festivals in London.
A-457.2                1879              Steinway's fork, New York pitch.
A-450.9                1880              Boston Music Hall, USA.
A-458.0                1880              Steinway's fork, New York.

The trend of the rise in pitch really began at the congress of Vienna in 1814, when the emperor of Russia presented new and sharper band instruments to an Austrian regiment, of which he was colonel. The band of this regiment became noted for the brilliancy of its tone. In 1820 another Austrian regiment received instruments that were sharper still, and the theaters were greatly dependent upon the bands of the home regiments for the source of their music, they were obliged to adopt the pitches of the regimental bands. Gradually at Vienna the pitch rose from A-421.6 (Mozart's pitch) to A-456.1, This was the pitch that the Theodore Thomas orchestra used in Cincinnati in 1880.

The mania spread throughout Europe; pitch was on the rise, but at very different rates. When the pitch reached A-448 at the Paris Opera in 1858, the music world took flight. The emperor of France appointed a commission to select a pitch, whose findings brought forth a pitch fork called Diapason Normal, which was found to be A-435.4. This fork was, at the time, preserved at the Paris Conservatory of Music. At the great Vienna Congress in 1885, this pitch was advocated to be adopted as Standard Pitch, and in the United States some of the eastern piano manufacturers did adopt that pitch and began to tune their pianos to it in 1892. Up to the time of this international congress in Vienna, many different pitches had been in use. In this country the so called concert pitch was used, but with the variations of anywhere from A-452 to A-458. Although at the international congress in Vienna in 1885 the pitch of A-435 was recognized, it was not adopted everywhere immediately.

This pitch the Vienna congress adopted was the French Diapason Normal, as it was approved by the commission appointed by the emperor of France in 1858, and adopted in 1859; A-435.4 at a temperature of 59 degrees Fahrenheit. Two important factors were specified, the number of vibrations and the degree of temperature. Those two factors must be considered together, as they are directly related.

The fact that musical programs are played under different temperature conditions than formerly, exerted an important influence upon the adoption of our present day pitch of A-440. Concert halls and other public places were not heated as they are today. There were large churches in Europe which were not heated at all. As the halls and churches were heated to ever higher temperatures, the pitch of the wind instruments went up. Wind instruments tuned to A-435 at 59 degrees F. will go up in pitch to A-440 when played in a hall heated to 72 degrees F, but the piano in turn does not go to A-440, but actually flattens slightly.

So since we do not play in cool halls of 59 degrees, but more likely at 72 degrees, and since the workmen in instrument making factories work in warmer temperatures closer to 72, it is much simpler to use an A-440 fork in the production of orchestral instruments. Piano manufacturers must consider tension, weight, and lengths of various sizes of wire used in the scale of their pianos, in order to secure a proper balance of the high tension of the wires at the recognized number of vibrations and temperature conditions.

The American Federation of Musicians finally recognized the effect of temperature on A-435 tuned instruments and at its national convention in 1917 adopted the pitch of A-440. But even at that date there was no conformity in this country. High concert pitched instruments were in use in many sections and professional musicians were compelled to use two sets of instruments in their various engagements (high and low pitch). Brass instruments were built in high pitch and provided with low pitch slides, and when used with these slides for the lowering of pitch, the intonation of the instruments became faulty, dependent on the skill of the performer to "lip" them in tune.

Outside of the aforementioned eastern piano makers who adopted A-435 in 1892, piano makers used a different pitch source according to their own ideas of pitch. Organs were tuned to the favorite pitch of the choir leader rather than to a standard, and as for pianos, their pitch varied from "high concert" to a little under A-435. In those days, if the piano tuner was not informed by the piano owner or a player as to the desired pitch they wished to have their piano tuned, it was tuned to the prevailing pitch at the time of servicing, whatever that was. Since there was no set standard, opinions continued to vary and those tuners who had forks set to the Vienna congress (A-435), gave up their use because these forks were rarely in agreement with the pitch demanded. Such were the contradictions existing in the chaotic world of pitch prior to the adoption of A-440 at 68 degrees fahrenheit.

Fire at the Gabler Piano Factory in 1880

On Sunday, October 24, 1880, a devastating fire spread through the entire piano factory owned and operated by Ernest Gabler, located on 224 East 22^nd Street in NY. It apparently started in the varnishing room which was located on the fifth (top) floor of the building, due to an overheated stove. Built in 1865, the building was also owned by Mr. Gabler. The front faced 22^nd Street, taking up that entire block, and ran through to 21^st Street, forming an ‘L’.

The basement was used as storage and the first floor was offices. The remaining floors were dedicated to the manufacturing of pianos. After more than an hour of fighting the blaze, the firemen finally gained control, but by the time the fire was out, only the brick walls remained.

Mr. Gabler employed 125 workmen. All of their tools were a total loss, estimated to be worth about $5000 in 1880 currency. The rest of the equipment and stock that were destroyed was valued at just over $101,000. Unfortunately the insurance only covered $33,166 of that.

Fortunately they had a good stock of finished instruments that was stored across the street, unharmed by the fire. The Gabler piano was considered a top of the line piano in those days, and the many customers that the firm had could be serviced at least partially so, from the stock that remained, until Mr. Gabler could restore his operation to making pianos at full capacity again. - as reported in the Music Critic and Trade Review magazine of Nov. 5, 1880.

In those days, fires were, unfortunately, not such an uncommon occurrence in piano factories.

FORGOTTEN AXIOMS OF PIANO BUILDING

One hundred years ago, it was stated by Nels Boe, Tuners’ Journal technical editor from 1921 to 1930 that “In Europe a pin is never hammered. Driving is not good for a pin. If you hammer it in, you destroy the thread, which is essential to keep the tuning pin from slipping.”

Nels Boe further stated that: “There is no doubt that if the practice of turning the pin in (or at least partly in) were employed we should have a pin not only smoother in its turning, but a pin on which the pin block would have a firmer grip. No one who has tuned the old German pianos such as Bluthner, Bechstein and Grotrian Steinweg, or the French pianos Erard, Graveau and Pleyel, will deny that the pins in those pianos did not turn smoothly and that they usually ‘stuck’ where one set them. They were all pianos in which the pins were turned in, but to follow this practice under the specialized manufacturing methods common in this country most likely would not produce the same satisfactory results.

“To turn in a pin requires not only the utmost care, but time and patience. If the pin is turned in too fast or too continuously, it will become heated and burnish the hole, lessening, if not entirely destroying, the necessary friction between the pin and the block. The utmost care must also be exercised in the preparation of the drilled hole and the handling of the pin. No shavings or wood particles left from the drilling must be permitted to remain in the hole and the pin, as well as the inside of the hole, must be covered with a layer of powdered rosin.

“It is natural that where satisfactory results depend upon such elaborate preparations and painstaking care; where a little slip or something overlooked may affect the object aimed at, or spell trouble; and where different persons are engaged in the work, that such a process cannot be divided into parts and successfully accomplished as a whole unless each person fully realizes the importance of his part in the finished whole. This ideal condition, it is unnecessary to say, is not frequently met under specialized manufacturing methods.

Therefore, unlike his European colleague, in whose factory the entire process connected with the stringing is done by one man, the American manufacturer has adopted the practice best suited to his manufacturing methods and one which provides fewer chances of anything going wrong, namely, to drive in the pin.”

This goes entirely against what has been taught at least since I have been a piano technician. I think that since we as rebuilders do custom work, we should do it that way at least once to see for ourselves the results.

The Erard: The Beginning of the Performance Piano

Let’s go way back to the 18^th century to visit the beginnings of the Erard Piano-forte maker. Why? By the 19th century, Erard pianos were as popular then as the Steinway is today. Many of the foremost musicians of that time, such as Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Liszt to name just a few, preferred the Erard over any other pianoforte of that era. As reported in the "Music Critic and Trade Review" magazine of September 5, 1880, we read:

“Towards the latter part of last month (August 1880), says the London and Provincial Music Trades Review, the house of Erards’ celebrated the centenary of their foundation. Owing to the recent death of M. Blondel, the Paris manager of the firm, there were no festivities. But Madame Erard marked the event by an act of regal generosity, distributing 60,000 francs among her workmen and employees, in proportions varying according to the period each one had been in her employment. Sebastian Erhadt, the founder of the firm, was born at Strasburg, April 5, 1752, the eldest of four children of an upholsterer in that city. He was originally apprenticed to a draughtsman, and it is narrated that he ascribed much of the success which attended him in after life to his theoretical knowledge of drawing and of the principles of mechanics. His father died poor, and Sebastian, at the age of sixteen, was thrown upon his own resources. He tramped to Paris, and entered the employment of a harpsichord maker there. He was a persevering young man, but it is narrated of him that “he was too inquisitive, and wanted to know too much.” However, his employer having received an order for a harpsichord, and being unable to execute it himself, entrusted it to young Erhadt, and when it was finished he, after the fashion too often adopted by eminent and other pianoforte manufacturers of the present day, affixed his own name to it. Questions, however, arose as to the mechanism, which the bogus maker was unable to explain, and the fact that the real maker was Sebastian Erhadt was disclosed.

The celebrity of the mechanical harpsichord soon ran around the fashionable world of Paris, and young Sebastian, then 25 years of age, attracted the notice of the Duchess of Villeroi. The lady herself had some originality of invention, and she established for Erhadt, whose name was forthwith Gallicized to Erard, a factory in her chateau. It was here that Erard manufactured the first pianoforte ever made in France, it being, according to Fetis, a square, with two unisons and five octaves, upon the plan of the pianofortes which had been imported from England and Germany. This was in 1777, and from it the celebrity of Erard may lie said to date. His orders for pianos largely increasing, he sent to Strasburg for his brother Jean Baptiste, and the two, in July, 1780, established in the Rue de Bourbon, in the Faubourg St. Germain, the factory which soon became one of the most celebrated in Europe. It was the centenary of this establishment that was observed last month.

Sebastian Erard now busied himself with new inventions, and among other things he devised for the voice of the queen, which was of such limited compass that almost every piece was too high for her, a movable keyboard. Some writers aver that the movable keyboard was old even at that time (1787), but it is almost identical with other inventions of a similar sort which have been patented even during later years. The idea was simply to change the position of the keyboard so that the hammers might strike a higher or lower string, thus transposing “a semitone, a whole tone, or even a minor third.” For eleven years the factory of Erards flourished in Paris, until the revolution broke out. The Erards were forced to flee to England, and in 1793 they established their London factory. On October 17^th, 1794, Sebastian Erard took out his first English patent, entitled “Two methods for the escapement of the hammer and an arrangement for striking one two or three strings at pleasure by a side movement of the damper rail. Harmonic octave produced by mechanism which pressed on the string exactly in the centre.” At that time, although the pianoforte was known to have been used at a concert by Dibdin as far back as 1767 (the concert program now being framed, is in the office of Messrs. John Broadwood & Sons), it was really in its infancy. Backers, Broadwood, ans Stodart were then the great pioneers of pianoforte manufacture, for although the firm of Kirkman was in existence long prior, its industry was exclusively confined to the manufacture of harpsichords. In 1796, after the Reign of Terror, Erard returned to Paris, continuing, however, his London factory. In that year he made his first grand horizontal piano on the English model, which, according to Fetis, he continued using till 1808. He had in the meantime, in 1801, patented in London an invention “to render the touch either hard or soft to any degree, at the election of the player.”

In 1808 Sebastian Erard finally discarded the English action, and on September 14^th of that year he patented the first ideas of his famous repetition action. It is the fourth article of the patent (the previous articles relating to stopping the piano strings so as to give a semitone above, and to plate improvements), and it runs as follows: - “In the piano an improvement is introduced into the movement in connection with the hammer rail, which affords the power of giving repeated strokes without missing or failure by very small angular motions of the key itself.” The specification with drawings is printed, and it may also be found in the seventh of the Rolls Chapel Reports. In an article in the Dictionary of Musicians, Mr. A.J. Hipkins refers to a patent for the repetition grand piano action, taken out by Sebastian Erard in 1809, but no such patent is in the records of our patent office. Mr. Hipkins further states that a feature of this 1809 patent was the inverted bridge or upward bearing at the wrest plank bridge of the piano, since invariably adopted. But as we can find no record of the facts, we must leave the responsibility of the statement to Mr. Hipkins. It is very certain, however, that the invention of the repetition action had occupied Sebastian Erard from the time that Louis XVI conferred the brevet upon his firm to the date of the actual fruition of his ideas. Sebastian, however, well nigh seventy years of age, felt himself too old to carry his invention out, and he confided it to his nephew Pierre, the son of his brother, Jean Baptiste Erard. Pierre Erard was born in 1796, and at the age of 25, in 1821, he describing himself as of “Great Marlborough street, musical instrument maker,” took out the celebrated repetition action patent, dated December 22^nd of that year. The preamble of the patent declares that Pierre Erard, “in consequence of communications made to him by a certain foreigner residing abroad, is in possession of an invention of ‘Improvements in pianofortes and other keyed instruments’, namely, a new and improves application of mechanism to the escapement.” The patent is briefly described in the official abridgements as follows: -

“The present invention introduces four improvements, which require simply the depression of the key. (1) A spring so contrived that its strength is made to support the weight of the hammer after it has made its blow and has escaped from its support upon the sticker. (2) A contact is brought about between the hammer, near the centre upon which it moves, and the spring or lever connected and supported by such spring, in order to prepare the fall of the hammer when its escapement takes place. (3) A lever, by moving on its centre, effects the escapement of the sticker from under the hammer. (4) A piece so contrived with an adjusting screw as to catch the hammer in its fall, and to stop or hold it as long as the key is kept entirely down, so as to prevent the possibility of its rebounding to the wires again, while it releases it again with the smallest rise of the finger end of the key.”

This practically ended the connection of Sebastian Erard with the firm which he had founded. The labor of his early years told upon even a robust constitution, and after suffering many years from disease, he died at his chateau, La Muette, near Passy, August 5^th, 1831. His funeral was a grand one, attended by most of the leading artists of Paris.

M. Pierre Erard now took up the active direction of the business, and he proved himself as prolific in invention as his uncle before him. Following rapidly upon the invention of the repetition action in 1821, M. Pierre Erard, on January 5^th, 1825, patented the system of fixed metal bracing, which was widely adopted, and is even used in our days. This invention (emanating originally from Sebastian Erard) also included a new contrivance for the check. In February, 1827, a further patent, also the idea of Sebastian Erard, and improving the action and the check with a new method of hinging the hammer, was granted,  while in 1835 the repetition action patent of 1821 was extended for seven years, on the ground of the great utility of the patent and of the losses at first sustained in working it. In September, 1840, M. Pierre Erard took out his first original patent of a new action for oblique pianofortes, the patent also including a ball and socket centre of motion for the finger key and an X stand to obtain equal support for all the four feet of horizontal pianos. The last two points of the invention have, we believe, since been abandoned. Another patent was granted to M. Pierre Erard in September, 1850, the ideas including the application of wood to metal instead of metal to wood, a tuning screw for each wire, new pedal keys, and especially a wrest plank wholly of metal. Another patent was taken out in November, 1851, by which the strings were laid on or against the sound board instead of on the bridge of the sound board, the idea proposing to obviate the pressure which tends to press away the sound board.

M. Pierre Erard died at Passy in 1855, and the important business has since been carried on by his widow, Madame Erard, assisted by a competent London and Paris staff. In February, 1862, Mr. E.G. Bruzaud, the manager of the London house, patented a contrivance by which two dampers were used for each note.

It may be mentioned that the invention in 1838 of the harmonic bar is claimed for M. Pierre Erard by Dr. Oscar Paul in the Geschichte des Claviers, published in Leipzig in 1688. The house of Erard has also always been celebrated for its harps. . . Harp patents were also taken out by Sebastian Erard in 1802, 1808, (damping) 1810,. . . and by Pierre Erard in 1822 and 1835.