[GreenKeys] [External] Re: Tone frequency history?

[Gerry Block]

Btw A was not always 440 so maybe there were some surplus 425 tuning forks from WW1....

Sent from my iPhone

> On Oct 8, 2021, at 8:14 AM, Ralph Mowery <rmowery42 at charter.net> wrote:
> 
> The fine points of music is not my thing.  I just happened to have an April
> 1957 copy of CQ magazine I was looking through a few days ago and in it was
> a simple ( for then) circuit that used a tuning fork to determine the
> frequency.  I just reread it and it is mentioned that a 432 hz ( cps back
> then) fork was obtained and filed to make it match a 425 hz fork.  
> 
> After seeing the note from Nick and this one and looking very quick at the
> internet it seems that over the years there have been several 'standards'
> for the music tones, scales , or whatever.  
> 
> About 40 years ago I bought a model 19 table from an older ham.  Along with
> that he threw in a lot of CQ and QST magazines dating from about 1950 to
> 1970.  I keep a few around and rotate them out for bathroom reading
> material. Very interesting to see how things have changed over the years. I
> had an interest in electrons around 1960 but it was about 1972 before I got
> licensed and met the local hams.  In the last few years the bug bit me about
> putting together a station of the time I was born.  For almost nothing I put
> together a station that would have been a well equipped ham station of that
> time.  Then a Heathkit station for about the time I first got interested in
> ham radio,but 6 or 8 years before I got licensed.
> 
> Ralph ku4pt
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jones, Douglas W [mailto:douglas-w-jones at uiowa.edu] 
> Sent: Friday, October 08, 2021 10:48 AM
> To: Nick England; Ralph Mowery
> Cc: greenkeys at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: RE: [External] Re: [GreenKeys] Tone frequency history?
> 
> From: Nick England [navy.radio at gmail.com] -- Friday, October 8, 2021 9:14 AM
> 
>> wonder why 425 Hz tuning forks would have been common? Musical A is 440
> and A-flat is 415.3.
> 
> It's not that simple.  Historically, there has been a process called pitch
> inflation in the music industry.  To quote the final paragraph of
> -- https://jakubmarian.com/the-432-hz-vs-440-hz-conspiracy-theory/
> 
>> Virtually all commercially produced contemporary music is tuned to A = 440
> Hz. Nevertheless, most symphony orchestras ignore the standard and tune to
> 441, 442 or 443 Hz instead, while orchestras specializing in older music may
> sometimes use a tuning close to the one for which the piece was originally
> written, which may range from 415 Hz to 470 Hz.
> 
> So, 425hz is one note that is historically appropriate as A.  In 1859, the
> French government set the standard at 435.  The 440 standard dates back to
> 1939.
> 
>          Doug Jones
>          jones at cs.uiowa.edu=
> 
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