Concert pitch refers to the pitch reference to which a group of musical instruments are tuned for a performance. Concert pitch may vary from ensemble to ensemble, and has varied widely over musical history. In the literature this is also called international standard pitch. The reference note most commonly used is the "A" above middle C.
The term "concert pitch" is also used to distinguish between the "written" and "sounding" notes of a transposing instrument - concert pitch here refers to the pitch on a non-transposing instrument. Music for transposing instruments is transposed into different keys from that of non-transposing instruments—for example, playing a written C on a B♭ clarinet or trumpet produces a non-transposing instrument's B♭. This pitch is referred to as "concert B♭".
Read more about Concert Pitch: Modern Standard Concert Pitch, History of Pitch Standards in Western Music
Famous quotes containing the words concert and/or pitch:
“Science is unflinchingly deterministic, and it has begun to force its determinism into morals. On some shining tomorrow a psychoanalyst may be put into the box to prove that perjury is simply a compulsion neurosis, like beating time with the foot at a concert or counting the lampposts along the highway.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“Though I have locked my gate on them
I pity all the young,
I know what devil’s trade they learn
From those they live among,
Their drink, their pitch and toss by day,
Their robbery by night....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)