Frequency is measured in cycles per second (CPS). 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. The frequencies referred to here are based on modern measurements and would not have been precisely known to musicians of the day. Towards the end of the 18th century there was an overall tendency for the A above middle C to be in the range of 400 i to 450 Hz. A tuning fork that belonged to Ludwig van Beethoven around 1800, now in the British Library, is pitched at A = 455.4 Hz i, well over a half-tone higher. For example, a 1740 tuning fork associated with Handel is pitched at A = 422.5 Hz, i while a specimen from 1780 is pitched at A = 409 Hz, i about a quarter-tone lower. The tuning fork was invented in 1711, enabling the calibration of pitch, although there was still variation. When the pipe ends became frayed by this constant process they were all trimmed down, raising the overall pitch of the organ. Generally, the end of an organ pipe would be hammered inwards to a cone, or flared outwards, to raise or lower the pitch. The pitch used for an English cathedral organ in the 17th century, for example, could be as much as five semitones lower than that used for a domestic keyboard instrument in the same city.īecause of the way organs were tuned, the pitch of a single organ could even vary over time. Pitches varied over time, from place to place, and even within the same city. Until the 19th century there was no coordinated effort to standardize musical pitch, and the levels across Europe varied widely. Various systems of musical tuning have also been used to determine the relative frequency of notes in a scale. Historically, various standards have been used to fix the pitch of notes at certain frequencies. History of pitch standards in Western music Historically, this A has been tuned to a variety of different pitches. The A above middle C is often set at 440 Hz.
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