View source for Concert pitch

{{Short description|Reference point for tuning musical instruments}}
[[File:Transposing 2.png|thumb|A written C, top, on a B{{music|flat}} clarinet sounds a concert B{{music|flat}}, bottom.]]

'''Concert pitch''' is the [[pitch (music)|pitch]] reference to which a group of [[musical instrument]]s are [[musical tuning|tuned]] for a performance. Concert pitch may vary from [[musical ensemble|ensemble]] to ensemble, and has varied widely over time. The [[International Organization for Standardization|ISO]] defines international standard pitch as [[A440 (pitch standard)|A440]], setting 440 [[Hertz|Hz]] as the frequency of the A above [[middle C]]. Frequencies of other notes are defined relative to this pitch.

The written pitches for [[transposing instrument]]s do not match those of non-transposing instruments. For example, a written C on a B{{music|flat}} [[clarinet]] or [[trumpet]] sounds as a non-transposing instrument's B{{music|flat}}. The term "concert pitch" is used to refer to the pitch on a non-transposing instrument, to distinguish it from the transposing instrument's written note. The clarinet or trumpet's written C is thus referred to as "concert B{{music|flat}}".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Concert Pitch Transposition|url=https://bandnotes.info/tidbits/scales/transposition.htm|access-date=2021-02-17|website=bandnotes.info}}</ref>

==Modern standard concert pitch==
{{listen|filename=Sine wave 440.ogg|title=440&nbsp;Hz}}
{{Main|A440 (pitch standard)}}
The '''A''' above [[middle C]] is often set at the [[ISO|international standard]] of 440 Hz. Historically, this A has been tuned to a variety of different pitches.<ref>{{cite book |title=History of Performing Pitch: The Story of "A" |author=Bruce Haynes |isbn=978-0-8108-4185-7 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |date=2002}}</ref>

==History of pitch standards in Western music==
Historically, various standards have been used to fix the pitch of notes at certain frequencies.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory27.htm
 |title=Pitch, temperament and timbre
 |publisher=Dolmetsch Online
}}</ref> Various systems of [[musical tuning]] have also been used to determine the relative frequency of notes in a scale.

===Pre-19th century===
Until the 19th century there was no coordinated effort to standardize musical pitch, and the levels across Europe varied widely. Pitches varied over time, from place to place, and even within the same city. The pitch used for an English cathedral organ in the 17th century, for example, could be as much as five [[semitone]]s lower than that used for a domestic [[keyboard instrument]] in the same city.

Because of the way [[organ (music)|organ]]s were tuned, the pitch of a single organ could even vary over time. Generally, the end of an organ pipe would be tapped with a cone tuning tool to curve it inwards to raise the pitch, or outwards to lower it.

The [[tuning fork]] was invented in 1711, enabling the calibration of pitch, although there was still variation. For example, a 1740 tuning fork associated with [[Handel]] is pitched at A&nbsp;=&nbsp;{{Audio-nohelp|Tone-422.5-Hz.ogg|422.5&nbsp;Hz,}} while a specimen from 1780 is pitched at A&nbsp;=&nbsp;{{Audio-nohelp|Tone 409Hz.ogg|409&nbsp;Hz,}} about a quarter-tone lower.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mendel |first=Arthur |date=1978 |title=Pitch in Western Music since 1500. A Re-Examination |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/932288 |journal=Acta Musicologica |volume=50 |issue=1/2 |pages=82 |doi=10.2307/932288 |issn=0001-6241 |quote=Still another fork has acquired what may be more authority than it deserves. Pascal Taskin, harpsichord-maker and tuner to the French Court, owned in 1783 a fork that had been tuned to the oboe of Antoine Sallentin, of the Opera and Chapelle du Roi. Whether Sallentin played the same oboe both in the Opera and in the Chapelle is not known-nor whether Taskin tuned any or all of his instruments to this fork, whose pitch was a1 = 409.|url-access=subscription }}</ref> A tuning fork that belonged to [[Ludwig van Beethoven]] around 1800, now in the [[British Library]], is pitched at A&nbsp;=&nbsp;{{Audio-nohelp|Tone 455.4Hz.ogg|455.4&nbsp;Hz}}, well over a half-tone higher.<ref name="Beethoven">{{cite web|title=Beethoven's tuning fork|url=http://blogs.bl.uk/music/2017/03/beethovens-tuning-fork.html?_ga=2.111538244.1976350515.1539182456-1763597418.1539182456|publisher=[[British Library]]|date=28 March 2017}}</ref>

Towards the end of the 18th century there was an overall tendency for the A above middle C to be in the range of {{Audio-nohelp|Tone 400Hz.ogg|400}} to {{Audio-nohelp|Tone 450Hz.ogg|450&nbsp;Hz.}}

The frequencies referred to here are based on modern measurements and would not have been precisely known to musicians of the day. Although [[Mersenne]] had made a rough determination of sound frequencies as early as the 17th century, such measurements did not become scientifically accurate until the 19th century, beginning with the work of German physicist [[Johann Scheibler]] in the 1830s. Frequency is measured in [[cycles per second]] (CPS). During the 20th century this term was gradually replaced by ''[[hertz]]'' (Hz) in honor of [[Heinrich Hertz]].

===Pitch inflation===<!--[[Pitch inflation]] redirects here-->
When instrumental music has risen in prominence (relative to vocal music), there has been a consistent tendency for pitch standards to rise. This led to reform efforts on at least two occasions. At the beginning of the 17th century, [[Michael Praetorius]] reported in his encyclopedic ''Syntagma musicum'' that pitch levels had become so high that singers were experiencing severe throat strain and [[lute]]nists and [[viol]] players were complaining of snapped strings. The standard voice ranges he cites show that the pitch level of his time, at least in the part of Germany where he lived, was at least a [[minor third]] higher than today's. Solutions to this problem were sporadic and local, but generally involved the establishment of separate standards for voice and organ ({{Langx|de|Chorton|translation=choir tone|link=no}}) and for chamber ensembles ({{Langx|de|Kammerton|translation=chamber tone|link=no}}). Where the two were combined, as for example in a [[cantata]], the singers and instrumentalists might use music written in different keys. This kept pitch inflation at bay for some two centuries.<ref>{{cite book |title=Syntagma Musicum: Parts I and II. De Organographia. II, Parts 1–2 |author=Michael Praetorius |isbn=9780198162605 |publisher=Clarendon Press |date=1991 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/syntagmamusicumi0000prae }}{{vn|date=August 2013}}</ref>

Concert pitch rose further in the 19th century, evidenced by tuning forks of that era in France. The pipe organ tuning fork in [[Chapels of Versailles|Versailles Chapel]] from 1795 is 390&nbsp;Hz,<ref name=CambridgeOrgan/> an 1810 [[Paris Opera]] tuning fork sounds at A&nbsp;=&nbsp;423&nbsp;Hz, an 1822 fork gives A&nbsp;=&nbsp;432&nbsp;Hz, and an 1855 fork gives A&nbsp;=&nbsp;449&nbsp;Hz.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VKadRqLPJaYC&pg=PA86 |page=86 |title=The Historical Performance of Music: An Introduction |author1=Colin Lawson |author2=Robin Stowell |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1999 |isbn=9780521627382}}</ref> At [[La Scala]] in Milan the A above middle C rose as high as {{Audio-nohelp|Tone 451Hz.ogg|451&nbsp;Hz}}.<ref name=CambridgeOrgan>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oisXAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT81 |page=81 |title=The Cambridge Companion to the Organ |editor1=Nicholas Thistlethwaite |editor2=Geoffrey Webber |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1999 |isbn=9781107494039}}</ref>

===19th- and 20th-century standards===
[[File:B&H Model 32 Alto Saxophone (Low Pitch).jpg|thumb|A circa 1932 Boosey & Hawkes 'Model 32' alto saxophone stamped 'LP' for Low Pitch (A=440 Hz). Saxophones tuned to A=456 Hz would be marked 'H', 'HP' or 'High Pitch']]
[[File:1915 Buescher Truetone Alto Sax (High Pitch).jpg|thumb|right|A 1915 [[Buescher Band Instrument Company|Buescher]] Truetone [[alto saxophone]] marked 'High Pitch' (A=456 Hertz). Saxophones tuned to A=440 Hz would be marked 'L', 'LP' or 'Low Pitch']]
[[File:1927_Conn_Alto_Saxophone_High_Pitch.jpg|thumb|right|A 1927 [[C.G._Conn|Conn]] New Wonder Series 2 alto saxophone marked 'H' for 'High Pitch' (A=456 Hertz)]]

Rising pitch put a strain on singers' voices and, largely due to their protests, the French government passed a law on February 16, 1859 setting the A above middle C at 435&nbsp;Hz, {{Audio-nohelp|Tone 435Hz.ogg|435&nbsp;Hz}}. This was the first attempt to standardize pitch on such a scale, and was known as the ''diapason normal''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Holoman |first=D. Kern |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yTv-OXC-WcgC&dq=diapason+normal+february+1859&pg=PA491 |title=Berlioz |date=1989 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-06778-3 |pages=491 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=CambridgeOrgan/> It became a popular pitch standard outside France as well, and has been known at various times as ''French pitch'', ''continental pitch'' or ''international pitch'' (this international pitch is not the 1939 "international standard pitch" described below). An 1885 conference in Vienna established this standard in Italy, Austria, Hungary, Russia, Prussia, Saxony, Sweden and Württemberg.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Nafziger|first1=James A. R.|last2=Paterson|first2=Robert Kirkwood|last3=Renteln|first3=Alison Dundes|author-link3=Alison Dundes Renteln|title=Cultural Law: International, Comparative, and Indigenous|page=95|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-86550-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OyirBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA95|access-date=8 January 2020}}</ref> This was included as "Convention of 16 and 19 November 1885 regarding the establishment of a concert pitch" in the [[Treaty of Versailles]] in 1919 which formally ended [[World War I]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Article 282 (22) |title=Treaty of Versailles |pages=129 |url=https://www.loc.gov/law/help/us-treaties/bevans/m-ust000002-0043.pdf |access-date=8 January 2020  |via=Library of Congress}}</ref> The ''diapason normal'' resulted in [[middle C]] being tuned at about {{Audio-nohelp|Tone 258-65Hz.ogg|258.65&nbsp;Hz}}.

An alternative pitch standard known as ''philosophical'' or ''[[scientific pitch]]'' fixes middle C at {{Audio-nohelp|256Hz.ogg|256&nbsp;Hz}} (that is, 2<sup>8</sup>&nbsp;Hz), which places the A above it at approximately {{Audio-nohelp|Tone 430-54Hz.ogg|430.54&nbsp;Hz}} in [[equal temperament]] tuning. The appeal of this system is its mathematical idealism (the frequencies of all the Cs being [[Power of two|powers of two]]).<ref>''Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia.'' Funk & Wagnalls, 1983</ref> This never received the same official recognition as the French A&nbsp;=&nbsp;435&nbsp;Hz and has not been widely used. This tuning has been promoted unsuccessfully by the [[LaRouche movement]]'s [[Schiller Institute]] under the name ''Verdi tuning'' since Italian composer [[Giuseppe Verdi]] had proposed a slight lowering of the French tuning system. However, the Schiller Institute's recommended tuning for A of 432&nbsp;Hz<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.schillerinstitute.org/music/rev_verdituning.html |title=For a Verdi Opera in the Verdi Tuning in 2001 |publisher=[[Schiller Institute]]|year=2001 |access-date=April 21, 2013}}</ref><ref name=Rosen>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t_iB90JnPrwC&q=Verdi+tuning&pg=PA17 |last=Rosen|first=David|author-link=David Rosen (musicologist)|editor=Julian Rushton|editor-link=Julian Rushton|title=Verdi: Requiem|page=17|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1995|isbn=9780521397674}}</ref> uses the [[Pythagorean tuning|Pythagorean]] ratio of 27:16, rather than the logarithmic ratio of equal temperament tuning.

British attempts at standardization in the 19th century gave rise to the ''old philharmonic pitch'' standard of about A&nbsp;=&nbsp;452&nbsp;Hz (different sources quote slightly different values), replaced in 1896 by the considerably lower ''new philharmonic pitch'' of A&nbsp;=&nbsp;439&nbsp;Hz.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lloyd |first=Llewelyn S. |last2=Fould |first2=Achille |date=1949 |title=International Standard Musical Pitch |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41364475 |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Arts |volume=98 |issue=4810 |pages=85 |issn=0035-9114}}</ref> The high pitch was maintained by Sir [[Michael Costa (conductor)|Michael Costa]] for the [[The Crystal Palace|Crystal Palace]] [[Handel]] Festivals, causing the withdrawal of the principal tenor [[Sims Reeves]] in 1877,<ref>J. Sims Reeves, ''The Life of Sims Reeves, written by himself'' (Simpkin Marshall, London 1888), 242–252.</ref> though at singers' insistence the [[Birmingham]] Festival pitch was lowered and the organ retuned at that time. At the [[Queen's Hall]] in London, the establishment of the ''diapason normal'' for the [[The Proms|Promenade Concerts]] in 1895 (and retuning of the organ to A&nbsp;=&nbsp;435.5 at {{convert|15|°C|°F}}, to be in tune with A&nbsp;=&nbsp;439 in a heated hall) caused the [[Royal Philharmonic Society]] and others (including the Bach Choir, and the [[Felix Mottl]] and [[Arthur Nikisch]] concerts) to adopt the continental pitch.<ref>H.J. Wood, ''My Life of Music'' (Gollancz, London 1938) Chapters XIV and XV.</ref>

In England the term ''low pitch'' was used from 1896 onward to refer to the new [[Royal Philharmonic Society|Philharmonic Society]] tuning standard of A = 439&nbsp;Hz at {{convert|68|°F|°C}}, while "high pitch" was used for the older tuning of A = 452.4&nbsp;Hz at {{convert|60|°F|°C}}. Although the larger London orchestras were quick to conform to the new low pitch, provincial orchestras continued using the high pitch until at least the 1920s, and most brass bands were still using the high pitch in the mid-1960s.<ref>
{{Cite book
 | author = John Walton Capstick
 | title = Sound: An Elementary Textbook for Schools and Colleges
 | edition = second
 | location = Cambridge
 | publisher = The University Press
 | year = 1922
 | page = 263
 | isbn =9781107674585| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=SjkhsMGNfm0C&q=standard+%22low+pitch%22&pg=PA263
 }}</ref><ref>
{{Cite book
 | author = Roy Newsome
 | title = The Modern Brass Band: From The 1930s to the New Millennium
 | location = Aldershot, Hants; Burlington, VT
 | publisher = Ashgate Publishing Limited (UK); Ashgate Publishing Company (US)
 | year = 2006
 | pages = 62–63
 }}</ref> [[Great Highland bagpipe|Highland pipe bands]] continue to use an even sharper tuning, around A = 470–480&nbsp;Hz, over a semitone higher than A440.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://publish.uwo.ca/~emacphe3/pipes/acoustics/pipescale.html|title=The Pitch and Scale of the Great Highland Bagpipe|website=publish.uwo.ca|access-date=2017-04-09}}</ref> As a result, bagpipes are often perceived as playing in B{{music|b}} despite being notated in A (as if they were [[transposing instrument]]s in D-flat), and are often tuned to match B{{music|b}} brass instruments when the two are required to play together.

In 1834 the [[Stuttgart]] Conference of the [[Society of German Natural Scientists and Physicians]] recommended C264 (A440) as the standard pitch based on Scheibler's studies with his Tonometer.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rayleigh|first=J.W.S.|title=The Theory of Sound, Vol. I|publisher=Dover|date=1945|page=9|isbn=978-0-486-60292-9}} reprint of 1894 ed.</ref> For this reason A440 has been referred to as Stuttgart pitch or Scheibler pitch.

In 1939 an international conference recommended that the A above middle C be tuned to 440&nbsp;Hz, now known as ''concert pitch''.<ref name=440History>{{cite web |url=http://www.wam.hr/sadrzaj/us/Cavanagh_440Hz.pdf |title=A brief history of the establishment of international standard pitch a=440 hertz |author=Lynn Cavanagh}}</ref> This was adopted as a technical standard by the [[International Organization for Standardization]] in 1955 and reaffirmed by them in 1975 as [[ISO 16]]. The difference between this and the ''diapason normal'' is due to confusion over the temperature at which the French standard should be measured. The initial standard was A&nbsp;=&nbsp;{{Audio-nohelp|Tone 439Hz.ogg|439&nbsp;Hz}}, but this was superseded by A&nbsp;=&nbsp;440&nbsp;Hz, possibly because 439&nbsp;Hz was difficult to reproduce in a laboratory since 439 is a [[prime number]].<ref name=440History/>

In 1964, of 31 top professional U.S. orchestras, 19 were tuning at 440, the others at 441 or 442.<ref>Other Orchestras: Advice, 28 Oct 1963 - 20 Nov 1964, Folder 009-12-07, Executive Records, New York Philharmonic Shelby White & Leon Levy Digital Archives.
https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/cba18cd4-b5f1-4055-b93f-74b9ce23fe1d-0.1</ref> In 1987, the [[New York Times]] surveyed international practice, noting that “the A of most symphony and opera orchestras today ranges between 440 and 444.”<ref>Henahan, Donal. “Finding the Perfect ‘A’ Sparks a Pitch Battle.” New York Times, 30 August 1987, H19.</ref>

==Current concert pitches==
The most common standard around the world is currently{{when?|date=December 2022}} A&nbsp;=&nbsp;440&nbsp;Hz.

In practice most orchestras tune to a note given out by the [[oboe]], and most oboists use an electronic tuning device when playing the tuning note. Some orchestras tune using an electronic tone generator.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rockfordsymphony.com/faqs/why-does-the-orchestra-always-tune-to-the-oboe/ |title=Why does the orchestra always tune to the oboe?|publisher=Rockfordsymphony.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190312064520/https://www.rockfordsymphony.com/faqs/why-does-the-orchestra-always-tune-to-the-oboe/|access-date=2021-05-23|archive-date=2019-03-12}}</ref> When playing with fixed-pitch instruments such as the piano, the orchestra will generally tune to them—a piano will normally have been tuned to the orchestra's normal pitch. Overall, it is thought that the general trend since the middle of the 20th century has been for standard pitch to rise, though it has been rising far more slowly than it has in the past. Some orchestras like the [[Berlin Philharmonic]] now use a slightly lower pitch (443&nbsp;Hz) than their highest previous standard (445&nbsp;Hz).<ref>{{cite web|author=Emanuel Eckardt|author-link=Emanuel Eckardt|url=https://www.zeit.de/2003/01/Philharmoniker/komplettansicht|title=Der Zauber des perfekten Klangs|work=[[Die Zeit]]|date=23 December 2002|access-date=2018-10-11|language=de}}</ref>

Many modern ensembles who specialize in the performance of [[Baroque music]] have agreed on a standard of A&nbsp;=&nbsp;415&nbsp;Hz.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Baroque Clarinet |author=Albert R. Rice |date=1992 |page=57 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199799046}}</ref> An exact equal-tempered semitone lower than 440&nbsp;Hz would be 415.305&nbsp;Hz, though this is rounded to the nearest integer for simplicity and convenience. In principle this allows for playing along with modern fixed-pitch instruments if their parts are transposed down a semitone. It is, however, common performance practice, especially in the German Baroque idiom, to tune certain works to {{Lang|de|Chorton}}, approximately a semitone higher than 440&nbsp;Hz (460–470&nbsp;Hz) (e.g., Pre-Leipzig period cantatas of Bach).<ref>Oxford Composer Companion JS Bach, pp. 369–372. Oxford University Press, 1999</ref>

Orchestras in Cuba typically use A436<!-- See talk page. The NPR ref for A336 is certainly wrong, claimed to be confirmed by Ms. Dinnerstein, who meant 436. Saying Cuban string players tune A4 to 336 makes as much sense as saying "some players use soap instead of rosin, for a smoother sound." --> as the pitch so that strings, which are difficult to obtain, last longer. In 2015 American pianist [[Simone Dinnerstein]] brought attention to this issue and later traveled to Cuba with strings donated by friends.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2015/07/03/419464846/ddfh|title=Simone Dinnerstein on a Trip to Cuba and Making Music out of Difficulty|publisher=[[NPR]]|date=2015-07-03|access-date=2018-10-11}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Edgers |first=Geoff |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/a-brooklyn-pianist-who-cant-speak-spanish-organizes-the-first-us-tour-of-a-cuban-orchestra-since-castros-revolution/2017/06/08/7794d072-49ce-11e7-9669-250d0b15f83b_story.html |title=A Brooklyn pianist who can't speak Spanish brings a Cuban orchestra to the United States |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=2017-06-11 |access-date=2018-03-13}}</ref>

=== Controversial claims for 432 Hz ===
Particularly in the beginning of the 21st&nbsp;century, many websites and online videos have been published arguing for the [[Scientific pitch|adoption of the 432&nbsp;Hz tuning]] – often referred to as "Verdi pitch" – instead of the predominant 440&nbsp;Hz. These claims also include [[conspiracy theory|conspiracy theories]], related to specious claims of healing properties from 432&nbsp;Hz pitch, or involving Nazis having favored the 440&nbsp;Hz tuning.<ref>{{cite web |author=Cross, Alan |date=13 May 2018 |title=The great 440&nbsp;Hz conspiracy, and why all of our music is wrong |website=Global News |url=https://globalnews.ca/news/4194106/440-hz-conspiracy-music/ |access-date=10 May 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Marian, Jakub |title=The '432&nbsp;Hz vs. 440&nbsp;Hz' conspiracy theory |url=https://jakubmarian.com/the-432-hz-vs-440-hz-conspiracy-theory/ |access-date=2020-02-22}}</ref>

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==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Pitch (music)}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Concert Pitch}}
[[Category:Pitch (music)]]