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

[Ralph Mowery]

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=