I have a set of tuning forks that I am selling on eBay. I have never really used it, and don’t know much about it. My family used to give me a lot of strange and useless things, this was one of them. It has been sitting in my closet for years and I have since lost the paperwork. I posted them for sale and listed the notes and frequencies, and somebody messaged me saying that they are a very strange pitch reference. This is what they are: C-256 Hz, D-288, E-320, F- 341.3, G-384, A-425.6, B-480, and C-512. I do know that a standard A is 440Hz, so what would these be used for?
That is strange. A-425.6 is very low. My guess is that they’re either very old or were made for reference for a baroque orchestra that tries to play according to authentic olden-tyme pitch standards.
The frequencies seem similar to those in this set, which I assume is intended to be used for some sort of scientific demonstration (rather than musical) purpose.
A google search for some (B-480, C-512, G-384) of the frequencies suggests that they are for “sound healing” purposes.
No its not low.
Its close enough.
http://www.metapp.com.au/products.php?cat_id=7&subcat_id=63
Says A is 426.6 So I will say its close enough, you must be splitting hairs to say that is an unusual.
Did you not hear of the difference between common tuning and perfect pitch ?
Too late edit… perfect pitch… well thats the concept, but anyway… The low A may be “just intonation” … mathematically perfect.
“The interval from D to A (5:3 to 9:8) is 40/27 instead of the expected 3/2.” … 40/27 is 1.481481481…
I’m not really sure what you mean. The international standard for the A above middle C is 440Hz and has been so for decades. This is the starting pitch used to tune pianos, strings instruments, and so on for most contemporary performances in equal temperament.
The tuning forks you linked to are medical devices. They are for hearing tests, not tuning instruments. (There also seems to be a bit of medical woo surrounding them.) The hearing tests use frequencies of 256Hz and 512Hz and certain ratios of those for various purposes.
(And actually, now that I’ve looked that up, it appears those are the types of tuning forks that boffking has! Mystery solved! Those are medical, not musical, forks.)
Here is an example of an A440 musical tuning fork.
Just intonation is not related to perfect pitch; one is a tuning system and the other is a sensory ability. You still have to pick a starting frequency to tune in just intonation, and you might as well pick A-440. (But as I said, some people performing baroque and early classical music try to replicate the old sounds as closely as possible, and will use lower pitches.)
And while just intonation gets you slightly more perfect harmonies (in one key only) it is far from mathematically perfect. Read about the Pythagorean comma. There’s a reason why almost every piece of music uses equal temperament now.