
Contents
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The Sound of Europe: The French Pitch Arrives in America The Sound of Europe: The French Pitch Arrives in America
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Tuning to Europe: Piano Manufacturers, Pitch Data, and the Diapason Normal Tuning to Europe: Piano Manufacturers, Pitch Data, and the Diapason Normal
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Helmholtz at the Circus: Deagan’s Crusade for A 440 Helmholtz at the Circus: Deagan’s Crusade for A 440
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“The United Music Industries” “The United Music Industries”
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Conclusion Conclusion
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Three Retuning the World: Transatlanticism and the Defeat of the French Pitch
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Published:January 2023
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Abstract
“Retuning the World,” describes the dramatic transformation of pitch negotiations as the United States, where Boston had been an important center for the diffusion of the French standard until 1892, later retuned the world to the higher frequency of 440 hertz. Initially part of elite efforts to promote high culture in the United States, pitch standardization was recast as a commercial and industrial problem uniting classical and popular music. This reframing of the question around cultural economics enabled the emergence of an unprecedented consensus within American musical circles, a like-mindedness that provided the conditions for the United States’ triumph in pitch negotiations. In tracing the American roots of concert pitch, this chapter reveals the overlooked influence that the country has exerted on Western musical practice since the First World War. It also demonstrates the power of culture and aesthetics to fine-tune political economies—a situation nowhere more audible than in the United States’ shift from A 435 to A 440 as a musical standard.
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