Books › A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891 › scan 273
Scan 273
A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891
6 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 251. See the scan on archive.org.
1It is probably beyond controversy that as a mean between the pitches, for which the classical writers of the last century and the chief operatic composers of the present century wrote, the French Diapason Normal is the best, but the fact that a pitch of from 445 to 450 for a' was used for many years in all the leading opera houses of Europe, shows that the practical danger lies in passing this limit, or in going more than a quarter of a tone above French pitch. The possibility of the general introduction of French pitch into this country was examined by the Society of Arts' Committee in 1859, and again by a Committee appointed at a public meeting in St. James's Hall, London, in 1885, convened by the Royal Academy of Music in consequence of a communication from the Foreign Office; but the recommendation in favour of its introduction, proceeding from the 1885 Committee, was without results, in consequence of the expense which such a change would have entailed. It should also be noticed that although in 1885 instrument makers professed their readiness to make instruments to whatever pitch was decided upon, the real difficulty in the way of any great change is the pitch of existing instruments, and especially of the great organs, and this can only be removed by the owners or custodians of these instruments being willing to meet the necessary expense.
3The general introduction of French pitch as a national standard appears to be impracticable on the score of expense. Brass instruments could be altered to it without either great cost or damage, but so great an alteration of wood wind instruments is not only generally impracticable, but in some cases impossible. Even if all military and orchestral wind instruments were thus altered, the difficulty of using them with unaltered organs would be as great as at present, for many of the most important of these are above French pitch. To this reason must be added the opinion of many, which although not perhaps preponderating, is doubtless wide-spread, that a lowering to the Diapason Normal is greater than an all-round consideration of circumstances and artistic interests requires.
5The amount of flattening which wood wind instruments can bear without serious injury to intonation is about one-fifth, or at the most one-fourth, of a semitone. Instruments at the present military pitch of nominally a' 452.4, but practically of about a' 455 to a' 457, as nearly
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