TIL the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I also included a clause establishing concert pitch as A = 435 Hz

2 years ago by Ullallulloo to c/todayilearned

[T]he multilateral treaties, conventions and agreements of an economic or technical character enumerated below … shall alone be applied as between Germany and those of the Allied and Associated Powers party thereto:

. . . .

(22) Convention of November 16 and 19, 1885, regarding the establishment of a concert pitch.

Windex007 11 points 2 years ago

So not only did they fuck up by setting the stage for WWII but they ALSO fucked up that A442 is the way to go.

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SacredHeartAttack 13 points 2 years ago

but A=440...

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Ephera 10 points 2 years ago

The problem is pitch inflation.

Basically, tuning slightly higher than what the composer intended, will make the performance sound more brilliant.

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SacredHeartAttack 3 points 2 years ago

Oh, I understand. I kinda glazed over it saying concert pitch in the headline.

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Windex007 2 points 2 years ago

444 is also insane, fyi

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jaggedrobotpubes 1 point 2 years ago

Speedrunners will it to A=500 before you know it

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trolololol 1 point 2 years ago

What if it's death march as the second piece and your want to tune lower, do you need to re tune your piano or do you carry your 2nd piano in your pocket?

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Ephera 1 point 2 years ago

Well, you don't do that. You pick one frequency, in our case it was generally 442 Hz, and then you play the whole concert with that.

Re-tuning a piano can easily take an hour. And re-tuning an orchestra is just as well a multi-minute cacophonie. The audience would rather listen to a slightly too brilliant death march than that...

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Windex007 2 points 2 years ago

My sweet summer child

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SacredHeartAttack 2 points 2 years ago

Oh gimme a break I misread the headline. I’m way to old to be called a child by anyone.

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Windex007 2 points 2 years ago

Headline aside, what most people don't realize is that the mapping of frequency to pitch is a social construct. Outside of the VERY few people with perfect pitch.

What humans hear musically are the relative construction of sound which is why key transposition is generally unnoticed even by lifetime professional musicians.

I didn't mean to rib you specifically. I meant to rib in general the beautiful disconnect between science and art that exists in the domain of the humanity of music

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kogasa 1 point 2 years ago

You mean 432?

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marcos 1 point 2 years ago

I was about to joke how that probably contributed to WWII, but it turns out they had already pushed it into Germany and Italy 30 years before WWI.

But, humm... Unless it was Japan's reason to join.

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