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lutes and viols had been strained. Harpsichords had long been preferred at the tertia minore. The Chorton of Praetorius, a¹ 422·8, is practically the same pitch as that of the fork the possession of which has been attributed to Handel, a¹ 422·5. It is a very fair mean between G. Silbermann’s 18th-century Dresden pitch, a¹ 415, and the organs of Renatus Harris, a¹ 428·7. Stein tuned Mozart’s piano to a fork a¹ 421·6, and the Broadwood pianos used at the London Philharmonic Society in its first concerts (1813) were tuned to a fork c² 506·8, which gives a mean tone a¹ 423·7.

According to Schindler (Niederrheinische Musik-Zeitung, 1855, Nos. 8 and 9) and the report of the French Commission, 1859, the rise in pitch began at the Congress of Vienna in 1816, the military bands being the cause. With the improvements in wind instruments this continued, as a more brilliant effect was gained. In 1823 Weber’s Euryanthe is recorded as having been played in Vienna at a¹ 437·5, and in 1834 Kreutzer’s Nachtlager at a¹ 440. The measurements are doubtful, but the upward tendency is clear. Scheibler, by his simple and accurate tonometer, has recorded pitches in Vienna about 1834 from a¹ 433·9 to 440·2. About that time, or it may be a few years earlier, Sir George Smart established a fork for the Philharmonic Society, a¹ 433·2. Forks intended for this vibration number, stamped “Philharmonic,” were sold as late as 1846. But about that year the performing pitch of the Society had reached 452·5. Sir Michael Costa was the conductor 1846–1854, and from his acceptance of that high pitch the fork became known as Costa’s, and its inception was attributed to him, though on insufficient grounds. In 1874 a further rise in the fork to a¹ 454 was instigated by Sir Charles Hallé. The British army is bound by His Majesty’s Rules and Regulations to play at the Philharmonic pitch, and a fork tuned to a¹ 452·5 in 1890 is preserved as the standard for the Military Training School at Kneller Hall. But the Philharmonic Society adopted the Diapason Normal in 1896, and the military bands have not gone with it. In point of fact, they are gradually going higher, and the brass bands, which are so important in the North of England and in Wales, are not behind them.

It was the irrepressible upward tendency that caused the French government in 1859, acting with the advice of Halévy, Meyerbeer, Auber, Ambroise Thomas and Rossini, to establish by law the Diapason Normal. Other countries have gradually followed and, with few exceptions, the low pitch derived from the Diapason Normal may be said to prevail throughout the musical world. Great Britain has been the last to fall in, but the predominance of the low pitch, introduced at Covent Garden Opera since 1880, is assured. The proprietors of Queen’s Hall, London, did much for it when they undertook the alteration, at great expense, of their large concert organ, which had only just been erected. In 1896 the Philharmonic Society decided upon a performing pitch, ostensibly at 68° Fahr., of a¹ 439; and in 1899 Messrs Broadwood made a successful effort to get this vibration number accepted by their competitors in Great Britain. The high pitch remains only where there are large concert organs not yet lowered, and with the military and brass bands.

The consideration of temperature as affecting the use of a standard pitch was not attended to when the French government issued its ordonnance. The 15° Centigrade attached to the description of the standard fork in Paris was intended for the definition and verification of the fork only. The alteration of the fork due to heat is scarcely perceptible, but wind instruments, and particularly the organ, rise almost proportionately to the increase in temperature of the surrounding air, because sound travels at an enhanced rate as the temperature rises. The coefficient of this rise is equivalent to half a vibration (0·5) per degree Fahr. per second. D. J. Blaikley (Essay on Musical Pitch, Catalogue of the Royal Military Exhibition, Chelsea, 1890), and Victor Mahillon (Catalogue descriptif et analytique du Musée, Bruxelles, troisième volume, appendice, 1900) have recorded their experience of Wind instruments under changes of temperature. The French Commission, in establishing the Diapason Normal, should have chosen a temperature of 20° C. There would then have been less disturbance owing to the breath of the players and heat of the theatres or concert-rooms. It would be a great advantage to get this higher grade generally adopted. It was proposed in the Stimm-Conferenz at Vienna in 1885, but not carried. Table III., showing orchestral pitches obtained in 1899, for the measurements of which the writer is responsible, prove how chimerical it is to hope for greater accuracy than is found between 435 and 440 vibrations a second for a¹, inasmuch as temperature must always be reckoned with.