The Rise and Fall of English Pitch

Introduction

In trying to work out the mysteries of flute pitch and intonation in the 19th century, it's useful to have an idea how other instruments in the era were tuned.  In this page, we'll look at those historical references that are available and add more as they come to notice.  If you are aware of useful references we haven't included, don't hesitate to let us know.

We'll also try to draw inferences from this raw data.  Now, you'll understand that this is a risky business, so again, if you can see an alternative interpretation, don't keep it to yourself.

The raw data

The historical information comes from these sources so far:

• "On the History of Musical Pitch", Alexander John Ellis 1880
• "Tuning", Owen H. Jorgensen, Michigan State UP, 1991
• "History of Standard Pitch", Grove's Dictionary of Music, etc.
• "A History of Performing Pitch : The Story of A", Bruce Haynes

Information tends to be about the tuning of keyboard instruments (mostly piano) and pitch of orchestras.  The pitch of tuning forks is a common source.  Only data relating to England has been included.

Even with these few sources there are overlaps and confusions.  Hopefully these will be clarified and the gaps filled with the addition of further sources.

Presentation Approach

Just providing the lists of reference points gives a rather skewed picture, as a lot of data about some points in time unfairly outweighs the small amount of data available from others.  So a graphical approach was chosen to provide a linear timeframe.  But even graphing the pitches against their period produced a rather meaningless jumble of data points, so an attempt to relegate them into series has been made.  This is perhaps the riskiest part of the endeavour, and revision may be required by more data becoming available.  

In any case, the raw data is also provided, enabling you to draw (and hopefully communicate!) your own conclusions. 

Note that where a pitch was noted as being in use for a period of time, I've indicated that by two entries - one at the start and one at the end of the period.

The Series

Inspecting the data suggested these series:

• Low Pitch References (432Hz and below)
• Diapason Normal Pitches (circa 435Hz)
• Medium Pitch References (436-446 Hz)
• High Pitch References (447Hz and above)
• Modern Pitch References (circa 440Hz, post 1895)

Graphed against a linear timeframe, this picture emerges:

Observations

Low Pitch References

It seems likely that the century started with low pitch only, set around 420-425 Hz.  This rose slowly to around 430Hz mid century and persevered into the 20th century as Philosophical pitch - the notion that it had a particular significance in relation to nature.  

The perceived connection to nature is an amusing one.  A=430Hz is the equivalent of C=256Hz.  256 is 2 raised to the power of 8 - i.e. C 256 is 8 octaves above C1 - an inaudible note whose frequency would be 1 cycle per second.  So?  Because the second is a whole number subdivision of the day (60 x 60 x 24 = 86400), music at that pitch is seen as being in tune with the rotation of the earth.  Handy.

It is important to note that, from the evidence gathered, low pitch wasn't actually replaced by High Pitch, contrary to popular opinion.  It appears to have remained as the domestic standard until presumably taken over by modern pitch.  Interestingly a movement continues to the present to reinstate 430Hz, or more accurately C 256.

High Pitch References

High pitch seems to have been the preserve of the Philharmonic Orchestra movement and subsequently military bands.  Our earliest clear reference seems to be a London Philharmonic concert in 1846.  Despite a number of attempts to rein it in, it continued until 1895, when, according to conductor Sir Henry Wood, a throat specialist Dr George Cathcart financed the series of Promenade concerts on the condition they be conducted at Diapason Normal (435).  It seems a compromise of 439Hz (the predecessor to modern pitch) was actually adopted.

The data point at 433Hz, 1820 has been included in the High Pitch series as a possible departure point for this pitch.  Hopefully, further data might fill in the gaps between 1820 - 1846.  Military bands battled on at 452 until 1927 when an amendment to the Kings Regulations adopted 439Hz.

Medium Pitch References

It seems from the wording of the references that as soon as High Pitch was in place, there was a perceived need for an intermediate pitch.  The existence of this medium pitch is not well known, but is firmly attested by the references.  The most useful information so far is the report of a meeting held by the Society of Arts to see what could be done about reducing high pitch to something more sensible.

Diapason Normal References

This is a perhaps contentious grouping.  Diapason Normal was the reigning pitch in France at the time and thus had no legitimacy in Britain.  Some of the references are specific however, and some simply fit in well with the pitch and have no other apparent allegiances.

Modern Pitch

We see the start of where pitch was to end up, at 440Hz. The original intention seems to have been Diapason Normal, but confusion surrounding the temperature at which the measurements were to be made converted 435 into 439.  Spurious-sounding arguments about technical difficulties in creating 439Hz accurately in the laboratory (based on 439 being a prime number) later notched it up to 440 Hz.

Implications for the flute

It would seem that we should expect turn-of-the-century flutes to respond well at around 420-425 Hz.  Flutes around Nicholson's time might aim a little sharper, say 425 to 430.  430, perhaps starting to rise towards 445 should be a good pitch for the flutes of Rudall & Rose.

By the time we come to Pratten (1852), the so called medium pitch 445 should be well entrenched.  This compromise tuning would seem to be attractive to an instrument such as the flute that is not capable of covering both ends of the pitch spectrum successfully.  We might expect to see signs of this pitch in flutes in the immediate post Boehm period.

We might expect to see real High Pitch flutes in the period 1846 - 1895, or subsequently if intended for military use.  By 1895, modern pitch should be the general aim.

To see if these expectations are born out, see the associated article: 19th century flute tuning

The References

The references, taken from the sources mentioned above, appear below, sorted into the series presented in the graph above.
 

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Created: 25 March 2002