Curious pitch

[wes williams]

Paula -

You'll find that at https://web.archive.org/web/20110514131052/www.concertina.net/ww_pitch.html. Many 'missing' things from lots of sites can be found using the Wayback machine at archive.org.

[Stephen Chambers]

Here's something I've posted before that illustrates how big a problem pitch had become by the 1930s in Britain - it's a page from the 1936 catalogue of the musical instrument wholesalers Barnes & Mullins, showing that, by then, the Sheffield firm John Walker was manufacturing tuning forks in no less than six different pitches, but one of them was American Federation of Musicians, Universal Low Pitch A 440, which was already creeping into use in Britain through the popularity of American brass and woodwind instruments in the dance bands of the day.

 

Whilst A-435 was also known under various other names in Britain by that time - Diapason Normal, Continental, Queen's Hall, U. S. A. Pianoforte Manufacturer's Association, 1891, or French Pitch.

 

Edited March 15, 2024 by Stephen Chambers

[Paula]

8 hours ago, wes williams said:

Paula -

You'll find that at https://web.archive.org/web/20110514131052/www.concertina.net/ww_pitch.html. Many 'missing' things from lots of sites can be found using the Wayback machine at archive.org.

Thanks Wes. You’re really tops. Can I venmo you the price of a beer as thanks?

[wes williams]

1 hour ago, Paula said:

Thanks Wes. You’re really tops. Can I venmo you the price of a beer as thanks?

Thanks, but not necessary - ancients like Stephen and I (and many others) are always happy to help if we can.

[Stephen Chambers]

In fact it's not such a "curious" pitch at all really, but an option that was available to order from English concertina makers - indeed I have a 48-key amboyna Edeophone in A-435 myself, that is said to have been made by Lachenal in the 1920s for the then-famous Swiss clown Grock.

 

The pitch (or close to it) was already being used for operatic performances (at a time when orchestral performances were going ever-sharper) in France and Germany in the first half of the 19th century before, in 1859, the French government decreed that, by law, A=435Hz was in future to be the standard for musical performances, whilst other Continental European countries adopted it at an international conference in Vienna in 1885. This standard was known as the "Diapason Normal" (diapason is French for a tuning fork), but in English-speaking countries it was normally referred to as French Pitch, Continental Pitch, or International Pitch.

 

It continued as Continental Pitch through the 1930s, and Hohner accordions from that decade are usually stamped "470" (German notation for A-435) on their reed-blocks if made for Continental countries, or "880" (A-440) if intended for export to Britain.

 

Here's an interesting overview of the topic: A history of pitch standards in piano tuning 

[SteveS]

Thanks Stephen, for your reply.

 

This BT I have is super instrument and a great player, but has some terrible wear/cosmetic imperfections - I am considering repairing those.

The instrument is obviously well played - and being in what looks like A=435Hz pitch, I wonder if it has spent some of its life playing 'on the Continent'.

 

Is it possibly a Grock concertina?  We'll probably never know - it would certainly fit with Grock's era - although from the films I've seen Grock played Lachenals.

 

I'm considering full restoration, but given that it seems to be in A=435 and looks like it may have been fully retuned before, I'm considering leaving it in that pitch - I'm not sure whether the reeds would take a retune to A=440.

[Stephen Chambers]

44 minutes ago, SteveS said:

Is it possibly a Grock concertina?  We'll probably never know - it would certainly fit with Grock's era - although from the films I've seen Grock played Lachenals.

 

I'm considering full restoration, but given that it seems to be in A=435 and looks like it may have been fully retuned before, I'm considering leaving it in that pitch - I'm not sure whether the reeds would take a retune to A=440.

 

I've only ever seen photos/films of Grock playing large Lachenal Edeophones, and that's what his instruments that are preserved in Swiss museums are.

 

Tell me, what year was your Aeola baritone-treble made, and where was it found? (It might just help identify who played it, at some stage.)

 

The pitch difference is only 20 cents, so it shouldn't be a problem to tune it up, but I am in a bit of a dilemma about doing it myself too - for the sake of originality if it really was Grock's.