Baroque Concert Pitch. How did they know?

sine_wave · Joined: Sep 25, 2006 Posts: 20 Location: NY

It's generally accepted that during the Baroque era, concert pitch was A=415Hz, as opposed to our current A=440Hz. In the 20th century it wasn't too difficult to find a reference tone, etc.... to tune up to it. Heck, even the MiniMoog had a tune tone in it!

But what about orchestras in the Baroque period? After all, there were some serious pieces of music to be played and some of the best, IMO composers of all time lived and died within that period. How did they know what A=415Hz sounds like? Much more importantly, how could they be sure? Did they have some antiquated devices to help them or something?

-John

x_x · Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 11:16 pm Post subject:

With a tuning fork http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuning_fork

It was invented in that era. The wiki has the formula. Some orchestras don't use the 440Hz now, sometimes they increase/decrease it like 441 for ex... I think it was the same back then, 415 wasn't really a standard it probably varied a bit from place to place. But I don't know much about music history so don't take my word on it.

aldanasjuan · Joined: Jan 04, 2010 Posts: 10 Location: Guatemala

For the same reason they were some of the best, not only did the had the fork, but, the had incredible ears, perfect pitch ears, so they knew (not all of them) what a C or any other note was, and if you now something about perfect pitch, you should know that, when you have perfect pitch not only you know what note it is, you also know if its a little sharp or flat. Probably that can help your doubts.

ark · Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 11:36 am Post subject:

Some wind instruments are difficult or impossible to tune, so it is common for the rest of the orchestra to tune to such an instrument. The oboe is the instrument of choice in mondern orchestras because it's easy to hear when a lot of strings are playing; in the 18th century the choices might also include flutes, recorders, and even trumpets.

(When I say "impossible to tune," I mean impossible without modifying the instrument. For example, I own several recorders that are each made from a single chunk of wood. The only way to tune one of these recorders is to change the size or shape of the finger holes, either by removing wood to make them bigger or adding wax or something similar to make them smaller. Oh yes--changing the temperature changes their tuning somewhat also: They're flat when cold and become sharper as they warm up.)