Er, sorry, but Ed Swenson's view of historical pitch levels is appallingly out-of-date, and to no uncertain degree represents the vast gulf of communication between modern musicology and the modern piano technicans' world. With its publication in 2002, Bruce Haynes' "The Story of A" immediately became THE standard reference world-wide on historical pitch, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the topic. His study is of woodwind instruments, but that's just fine because until the mid 19th century, all historical tuning instruction tell you to get your starting pitch from a wind instrument, NOT a tuning fork. If they had to agree with anything, keyboards had to agree with winds, because most woodwinds are quite limited in their pitch flexibility.
Here's the quick and fast version of what Haynes found. There were essentially 4 pitch levels, going back at least to the 17th century if not earlier. Lowest was French "opera" at ≈492, then "normal" German
cammerton or chamber pitch ≈415, German
chorton or
cornetton, which was the pitch of almost all church organs, ≈465. In between was a thing the Germans called "the exotic Venetian pitch" ≈440. There is no evidence whatsoever for 430 during the Classical era. There were a few oddballs, such as the French pitch of the King's chamber music orchestra, ≈408, and a high German chorton ≈490. There is a vast amount of historical literature which supports this, including things such as organ parts written a whole tone lower than the orchestra parts, the requirement that all prospective organists be able to transpose a score
a prima vista, constant references to the different pitch levels in temperament literature, and two mid-18th century letters from the famous organ builder Silberman to prospective clients talking about what has to be decided upon when ordering a new instrument, among which is the pitch level, of which he says there are 4 possibilities separated by a halfstep each. Charles Burney describes an organ he saw in Hamburg which had originally been built in the 1720's with sliding keyboards and pedal to transpose by halfsteps over a range of a minor third (French opera to German chorton), but when he saw it, it had been blocked in a single position; he doesn't say why, but my guess is that they couldn't stand the Equal Tempeament which was required for the original design.
Personally, from my reading of German works on temperament, organ tuning/design, piano design and physical sciences from the 19th century, I can say that they considered 440 to be the norm from the 1830's onward, though they admitted that not everyone adhered to it. Both Kützing and Töpfer, writing in the 1830's-40's, use 440 as the reference pitch for their calculations of pianos scales and stringing schedules, as does Scheibler in all of his works discussing the precision measurement of musical tone frequencies.
Cheers,
Paul
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Paul Poletti
Builder/restorer historic keyboard instruments
Poletti Pianos
Barcelona
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-27-2017 10:53
From: Richard Adkins
Subject: Tuning Square Grands
Here's a bit of history....
Vose & Sons | The Antique Piano Shop
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| Vose & Sons | The Antique Piano Shop |
| Like most Boston makers, Vose & Sons built truly exceptional pianos. The firm was originally established in 1851 by James Whiting Vose on Washington Street in Boston. In the 19th Century, Boston was home to a large population of old world craftsmen who had immigrated to the United States from the old country. |
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Here's a quote if found when researching pitch for a friend's antique rosewood George M. Guild
1861 "cocked hat" Grand piano. We tune it at 440 and it has not exploded, yet! (Yes, it was rebuilt
with modern wire).
Quoted text:
The history of musical pitch as it relates to piano tuning has important consequences. Stringed-keyboard music written in the Baroque and Classic periods (including the music of J.S. Bach, Handel, Joseph Haydn, W.A. Mozart, C.P.E. Bach and Beethoven) was originally intended to be played at a low pitch which ranged from A=420 to A=430, nearly a semitone lower than A=440. Obviously, the musical result of playing harpsichord and early piano music at A=440 is considerably different from the less brilliant low pitch the composers originally intended. In the Romantic Period pitch skyrocketed upward well past A=440 and it fluctuated wildly according to location and performing arena. For example, in 1879 Steinway in New York used a tuning fork which produced A=457.2 while Chickering in Bostonpreferred A=435, the international pitch standard established by a French Commission in 1859. Still it is likely that most of the late 19th-century pianos (grands, squares and uprights) built in the United States after the Civil War (1865) were tuned at a pitch higher than A=440.
What is not said is that in Boston there were 2 pitches the high pitch,
and the low pitch (mentioned above)....
See the chart of pitches....but it does not list the Boston pitch, which I found somewhere else...I
need to search my old files to find the exact 2 pitches from Boston....
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Richard Adkins
Piano Technician
Cedar Rapids IA
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-25-2017 22:42
From: James Kelly
Subject: Tuning Square Grands
I looked at a Vose and Sons Square Grand in a home located in Georgetown SC and purchased by someone in North Carolina. It was in much better shape than I thought I would find it and it is obvious some work had been done to it in the way of restringing. Very tight coils, tuning pins at the same height with plate clearance, only one off color Ivory head, no broken strings and very full sound. Massive case in rosewood with carved legs. The serial number dates it to the end of 1884 . It will be tuned in North Carolina but I was asked if it could be tuned to A440. Since I know very little about squares I am not sure what the pitch maximum is so perhaps someone can tell me. Does anyone know the answer ? Also looking for someone in NC that could take care of it . The buyer lives in the Charlotte area.
I am thinking 435 may be the highest but I am not even sure of that..
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James Kelly
Pawleys Island SC
843-325-4357
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