comment … hmmm true C is 256 hz not 263 hz
That makes A at 432, while we tend to tune to A440. There are some that insist on alternate “true” tunings, but, as far as I can tell, there is no real reason any particular level of vibration has to be used for any pitch. Pretty much any automatically tuned instrument will be tuned at A440 with equal temperament, and thus will have a C at 263. To play in tune with those instruments, the C needs to be the same.
Of course, this is all moot, as this was not explained because it makes the article more complicated. It’s not like it really matters, as, if you want to play with A432, that is well within the tuning range of the instrument. You’ll just need a bunch of similarly tuned instruments.
Actually, there’s a lot of pitch-whoring out there in the wild, with A pushed as high as 460. Makes things sound more excitin’ doncha know? – and damn the ruined voices and instruments. There was a movement for reform in the 1980s, to return A to 432 or so (which was the first international standard, set up in the late 19th century), but Lyndon LaRouche’s wife became interested and got Hubby to back it, and his stench ruined the whole thing.
Apart from the matter of how difficult it is to transpose, having the same kind of instrument available in various keys gives the musician more options. Any given instrument usually produces different tonal qualities at different pitches up and down its range. Moreover, two differently sized instruments of the same general type will sound the same pitch differently.
By my math, A440 yields a C of 261.6Hz (in equal temperament).
Not a tremendous difference certainly, but we may as well be precise.
That may explain the slightly smaller tuning barrel my fellow clarinetist got by mistake. The clarinet is one of the ugliest instruments when you have tune it flat.
Yet another reason I wish I’d learned sax. (Fingering’s easy. Tone and vibrato are hard.)
It does bring up the point though, that while the OP was off on his C too, the article is (slightly) inaccurate.
Well, and also 440 to 432 may not sound like much, but it’s a whopping 32 cents. Enough to cause some real inconvenience. I like the LaRouche explanation better, though.
I found it to be profoundly inaccurate in the details.
To be fair, I doubt I could have done better (probably much worse, in fact) in the space allotted.
I have a C:256 tuning fork. Another websites lists C at 261 HZ. Who decides and why?
A good deal less inconvenience than was already being caused by rogue tuning. In the early 80s, my teacher, who had sung Aida many times, couldn’t figure out why it was so hard to sing the role in Sofia. Finally, her husband, a piano tuner, checked, and found that the orchestra was playing at 456.
Trust me, it may not be the entire explanation of why the reform movement failed, but it was an imporant part of it; I was there. Nothing screws up a popular reform movement worse than being adopted as a cause by a notorious cult.
Everyone. And because someone has to.
Powers &8^]