The 432Hz debate

[Ralphies]

An interesting article:

Music Theory: Exploring The 432Hz Tuning Debate

Most of the world now uses 440Hz as the standard pitch tuning. However, this has been a relatively recent standard, and 432 Hz is making a comeback. Lynda Arnol

ask.audio

I know not all believe this, here are some 10 facts against it:

Music Theory: 432 Hz - Separating Fact From Fiction

In exploring the 432 Hz debate at Ask.Audio, we soon realised this topic wasn't going to be resolved in one article. Here Assaf Dar Sagol explores the fact and

ask.audio

Are you familiar with this 432Hz tuning? And what is your opinion?

 

[mhardy6647]

That must really annoy people with perfect pitch.
... or maybe they just adapt to it when necessary.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Hey, no political posts now.....

Seriously, I've seen some really intense arguments about that issue.

 

[NTK]

Hey, no political posts now.....

Seriously, I've seen some really intense arguments about that issue.

Like this thread?

432hz

So, I just stumbled onto this concept of 432hz v. 440hz. I've no idea. Is it legit? Are there any valid arguments supporting this concept? Has this been properly vetted? Per the home page at 432player.com: Welcome to the world of the 432 Player! The 432hz community is rising. Welcome to...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Tremolo]

The second article unveil all the bs. Music is about intervals, absolute pitch is not relevant, musicians have always chosen freely the pitch (as long as they play togheter in the same pitch, of course). Even cheap electronic tuner let you choose the A pitch. It's a problem just for the instruments that you cannot tune yourself easily, like the piano.

Different matter is the equal temperament (or every temperament) because affects the intervals and the first article made a mess of the two topics.

 

[Yannick Willox]

Concert tuning is between 442 and 444 these days …
Mozart period instruments are mostly tuned at 430 Hz, even if the tuning was all over the place end of 18th.
if I remember correctly, Steinway New York end of 19th century was around 450 or even 458 Hz.

my colleague found a really nice end of 19th century clarinet, strangely tuned in B (not Bb or A).
Look it up in Helmholtz, on the sensations of tone, one of the appendixes (there is an extensive list of diapasons over several centuries), the Belgian Guides (wind orchestra) 1885 played at A=460 Hz, which explains the weird clarinet.

Some period music is performed at 465 Hz, which is terrible if you have something close to absolute pitch and you have to record it !

There has never been a fixed tuning worldwide, even if there has been a short period where 440 was considered the norm. Quite early in that period some countries’ orchestras were already at 441 or higher …

I could go on, lots of overdubbed pop music has more than one diapason. electric bass is often tuned with a cheapo tuner, resulting in the bass line at 444 Hz, while the rest of the synths/vocals are at 440 Hz. Not funny.

Then we have relative pitch and just intonation, making every melodyned pop song actually completely out of tune, as a good singer will NOT adhere to equal temperament when singing.

etc.

In short, I have never heard about this specific 432 Hz “debate”.

 

[MRC01]

The pitch has been slowly creeping higher over the years. One legit reason for lower pitches is playing period/historic instruments, which were designed to that pitch.

We discussed at length here before about 3 years ago, but some may not realize that most woodwind instruments can only play in tune with themselves at a single pitch, which depends (mainly) on air temperature (speed of sound). Their ability to adjust pitch (sliding mouthpieces, headjoints, etc.) affects "short tube" notes more than "long tube" notes, so it is only useful for getting the instrument in tune with itself. It cannot shift the instrument's range. For string instruments, the pitch is determined largely by string length & tension, and tension in older instruments isn't as high due to the different string materials used and construction of the instrument.

Another interesting note is that wind and string instruments respond to differences in temperature in opposite ways. As temps get colder, string pitch goes up (because the strings constrict, increasing tension), while wind pitch goes down (because the speed of sound slows down). So winds & strings can play in tune together only within a range of typical room temperatures.