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Responding to Tobias Kaye on A=432


I am in full agreement with Tobias's proposition that we should tune to an A=432.  I have had my piano tuned to this pitch for some time and I am deeply satisfied with it.  The tuner can do it as long as it has a 432 fork to start.  It is a known fact that orchestras around the world have pushed up the pitch as high as 446 just to create a brighter sound.  One presumes that the piano concertos have to conform with this state of affairs.  With this tuning we have a system based on 1 or unity as the C becoming 256 can be reduced by dividing in half and getting lower and lower octaves unlike it comes to 1. Some wind players don't like tuning down to 432. Yet I have played with a clarinettist perfectly well playing on my 432 piano.  Helmholtz, the 19th century physicist, in his book On the Sensations of Tone has shown that A has been as low as 390 cps.
Baroque pitch was variable but generally speaking about a semi-tone lower than today.  In fact, there is a Baroque ensemble which calls itself "415" after its tuning.  So Bach's B minor Mass is rather Bach's B flat minor Mass.  In this highly speeded up age of ours returning to a lower tuning like 432 is a real antidote

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