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.