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Music: Practice & Theory

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  • Lovely answer.I'm still not convinced that having a different reference point for A (for example) will affect most people. Those with absolute pitch may love/hate the change, but us mere mortals - I really don't think it's much more than snake oil. It's akin to changing key in a piece (question imminent) so does that make the original or the new key better..? Commented Jun 25, 2019 at 16:47
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    I fail to understand the solfège argument. Surely using fixed do with or without chromatic alterations, d is re regardless of whether the frequency of that note is 587 Hz or 553 Hz. I also note that some period groups will use 430 (for late 18th century music) or 466 (German Chorton and early 17th century Italy). Commented Jun 25, 2019 at 16:49
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    @Tim Using 415 instead of 440 has a lot to do with the scale of the instruments and therefore their tone. When you transpose a piece, you play different notes. When you tune the instrument to a different pitch, you change its basic sound. Commented Jun 25, 2019 at 16:55
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    In my previous comment, by "scale" I meant "size," not musical scale. If you tune a harpsichord up a half step, for example (assuming it's not one of those with a keyboard that slides left and right), or any string instrument, you don't shorten the strings but make them tighter, which affects the tone of the instrument. Commented Jun 25, 2019 at 19:37
  • @Tim: Instruments have fixed ranges and sound different in various parts of those ranges, so if you were to change the tuning of 'A' by, say, a fifth, it would definitely make a very perceptible change in the way the piece sounded. The smaller the pitch change, the less perceptible the difference, but in principle it's always there. That said, the difference in instruments and technique probably overwhelms this difference long before we get to these changes of a few Hz around the middle of the keyboard. Commented Jun 26, 2019 at 16:31