Pitch
For many years, there was no pitch standard across Europe. The frequency of a′ (the standard note for tuning musical instruments), for example, could range from a′=392 Hz in parts of France to a′=465 Hz (Cornet-ton pitch) in parts of Germany. Organs were often tuned differently than ensembles, even within the same region or town. The modern tuning standard of a′=440 Hz (c′=262 Hz) was proposed in 1939, and accepted by the International Organization for Standardization (as ISO 16) in 1955 and again in 1975.
Read more about this topic: Pipe Organ Tuning
Famous quotes containing the word pitch:
“I saw the Arab map.
It resembled a mare shuffling on,
dragging its history like saddlebags,
nearing its tomb and the pitch of hell.”
—Adonis [Ali Ahmed Said] (b. 1930)
“I can’t earn my own living. I could never make anything turn into money. It’s like making fires. A careful assortment of paper, shavings, faggots and kindling nicely tipped with pitch will never light for me. I have never been present when a cigarette butt, extinct, thrown into a damp and isolated spot, started a conflagration in the California woods.”
—Margaret Anderson (1886–1973)
“I dream that I have brought
To such a pitch my thought
That coming time can say,
“He shadowed in a glass
What thing her body was.””
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)