Music Trade Review
Issue: 1913 Vol. 57 N. 3 - Page 12
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THE
12
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
OiuTTECHNlCAL DEPARTMENT
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM BRAID WHITE.
SOME REMARKS ON PITCH.
Somebody once said that "one cannot touch
'pitch' and not be reviled." The truth, is of
course, that the moment one undertakes to d-al
with this matter one begins to have trouble from
the start. The questions involved in all discus-
sions of pitch are questions which have agitated the
piano trade, both here and in Europe, for the past
century; all without the slightest probability that
the immediate future will bring about any special
change for the better. Nevertheless, one feels that
the problems are of such importance as always to
be demanding solution, so that discussion is never
out of place. I propose in what follows to set forth
with some denniteness certain points* which seem
to me to h? particularly interesting to the piano
tuner.
As a matter of abstract rightness there can be
no question whatever that uniform pitch is highly
desirable. It is perfectly obvious that the same
sound ought to represent the same note on all
musical instruments and throughout the practice of
(musical art. It seems just as clear that, other
things being equal, the basis of pitch should be as
low as possible. For, since every note in a scale
must be higher or lower according as the basic
pitch note is higher or lower, it is better to be
high than low; on all practical considerations. A
voice, for instance, must strain itself more and
more according as the pitch to which it sings is
higher and higher. The altissimo tones in any
voice are produced always with more or less dif-
ficulty, and the higher they are required to be, the
greater is the difficulty of producing them. Again,
in the case of a piano, the higher the pitch the
greater the strain of the tuned strings on the plate.
This again is bad for the tone producing apparatus.
From practical considerations, in fact, a lower pitch
is better, other things King equal, than a higher.
It would seem to be a very simple matter to have
a uniform tuning fork and to tune all pianos to
that fork. But the problem is far more complex
than this. In England, for instance, they have
been trying for years to secure some uniformity
in pitch matters. And the big obstacle against
which they have always run is the military band
interest. The brass bands and the makers of brass
band instruments have for years been going along,
in England, without regard to the rights artd
wrongs of pitch. They have insisted upon a pitch
ridicuously high (C 3 = 537) and have in conse-
quence forced everybody else more or less to fol-
low their lead. Now, it is very easy to tune a
piano to either the high or the international pitch,
although the process may not be good for the
piano. But it is not easy to change all band in-
struments, all organs and all wood wind to one
pitch from another. In fact, it cannot be done.
Hence until the band and orchestral instruments
are reduced to uniformity we shall never have a
single pitch.
Some of the great symphony orchestras have, in-
deed, insisted upon the international pitch, and
to this extent have encouraged its adoption. But
in point of fact the majority of such orchestras
use a pitch considerably higher, based on that of
their oboe. Oboists are almost all foreigners, with
foreign instruments. Hence the orchestras use
their pitch, and the pianos that are to be played
with these orchestras from time to time must be
FAUST SCHOOL OF TUNING
PUBO, Player-Piano, Pipe and Reed Organ Toning and Re-
pairing, alto Regulating, Voicing, Varnisaing and Polishing.
This formerly was the tuning department of the New Eng-
land Conservatory of Muiic, and Oliver C. Faust waa head
of that department for 20 years previous to its discontinu-
ance.
Courses in mathematical piano scale construction and
drafting of same have been added.
Pupils have daily practise in Chickeriaf ft Sana* faetorr
Year Book sent free apoa request
17-19 GAINSBOROUGH ST., iOSTOH f
tuned to conform therewith. Some great piano
manufacturers whose pianos are constantly being
used with orchestras maintain a number of con-
cert grands at different pitches, corresponding to
those of the different obo^s. All of which is a
nuisance, as we shall unite in agreeing.
From the tuner's point of view, the adoption of
a uniform pitch is something more desirable than
practical. Every tuner should carry with him an
international pitch work and should tune to it
whenever he can. But the plain truth is that to
do this is not so easy as to talk about it. For
the pianos which we tuners have to deal with are
oftener than not relics of scandalous misuse, poor,
wretched remainders from many a season of neg-
lect and mishandling. The question of pitch is un-
fortunately distinctly remote from that great mass
of the people who neither sing nor play in bands,
and whose idea of music is entirely rhythmic.
Consequently the tuner not only has to deal with
pianos which have been allowed to lapse from
pitch, but also with a public which has but slight
interest in the matter. Thus the struggle between
duty and expediency goes on without remission,
while it is hardly to be wondered that the latter
consideration is oftenest accepted.
What, however, in point of fact should be the
tuner's attitude? Undoubtedly, 1 think, he should
do his best always to tune to international pitch,
and to keep all his pianos as nearly as possible
thereto. Old pianos should be drawn to interna-
tional pitch wherever the owner can be made to
see the necessity or desirability of such work. But
it is absurd to tune laboriously to pitch, with per-
haps two or three goings over, and all for the price
of a mere tuning. The tuner who does this sort
of thing is a fool, because he is underrating his
own work*. The man who has so little confidence
in his own ability to make good that lie places it
at an absurdly low value just because he fears the
loss of some paltry business, need not be at all
surprised when he finds later that people take
him precisely at his own value. In matters of
business precedents are dangerous things. Once
set a precedent and no matter how you try to
exorcise it later it will rise again to trouble you
when least you expect it.
Still I cannot help feeling that the tuner who
is a real tuner will continually do his best towards
creating in the minds of his public such a respect
for the musical instruments which they possess as
will induce them to follow his sensible and reason-
able advice as to pitch. The tuner who can achieve
such a feat as this is worthy of all praise. The
first requisite is to gain the complete confidence of
one's clients. Then indeed they may be expected
to take one's advice. Confidence is the result of
demonstration. Only when people find that your
work is good, that you give right value for what
you receive, that your word is to be accepted wifh-
out reservation, will they extend to you that con-
fidence which permits them to take your advice
without misgiving and you to give it in full knowl-
Manufacturers! Dealers! Toners!
Yellow Ivory Keys Made White As Snow
edge that it will be followed. There is no other
solution.
But entirely apart from these considerations, the
musical aspect of uniform pitch has the utmost
significance for the tuner. It will be generally
conceded that the present trend of musical opinion
is distinctly towards the international pitch. Band
instruments makers in the United States are ahead
of their English colleagues in this respect. At the
recent convention of the British Music Trades,
Dr. Vincent made his annual pk-a for the adoption
of international pitch, which, as lately corrected
by Koenig, has been found to be C'\ = 517.85, but,
as usual, the assembled delegates were unable to
do anything in particular, as the band interest,
especially that of the military bands, was the same
formidable obstacle as ever. It is too bad. But
the English people are so much worse off than
we are that we ought to be rather sorry for them.
There is one more pitch to be made. Granting
the present trend towards the international pitch,
with American band instrument makers putting out
lines of international pitch instruments, and with
symphonic orchestras by degrees doing the same
thing, it looks as if we all shall be in the right
fold after awhile. In the meantime, let us tuners
be pioneers and carry on the good work to the
best of our ability, seeing to it that every piano
which comes under our care shall be tuned rightly
at the right pitch.
Communications for this department should be
addressed to the Editor, Technical Department,
The Music Trade Review.
TWO CLEVER AMERICAN ARTISTS.
Mme. Gianelli and Louis Persinger Score Great
Success in the West.
According to newspaper advices received from
the Far West, Mme. Angela Gianelli and her hus-
band, Louis Persinger, are scoring a marked suc-
cess in their tour of this section of the country.
Mme. Gianelli is a daughter of Charles A. Gian-
elli, a member of the floor staff of the New York
headquarters of Mason & Hamlin, and well-
known in retail piano circles.
Mme. GianelH is a pianist who is gaining a well-
deserved prominence in all parts of the musical
world, and her husband, Louis Persinger, is rec-
ognized as one of the foremost violinists on the
concert stage. Their joint recitals are spoken of
in the newspapers as attracting crowded houses.
TOO BUSY TO COURT THE MUSE.
S. R. Smith, the industrious piano man and poet
of Lead, S. D., can't be prevailed upon to write a
new sonnet to his home town, "a thousand miles
above the sea." He is too busy selling Kingsbury
pianos. H e believes that the time to pick black-
berries is when black-berries are ripe, and his poetic
inspirations can be laid aside against the day when
the milkman and newsboy "wait until the snow
plow goes through."
W. A. Ernst has opened a piano store in Peso
Robles, Cal.
"Caplan's Patent Ivory Polish" will do i t
Samples 60 cts. and $1 (dollar sixe will
whiten four sets of piano key*)- t For
further particulars write to
HENRY CAPLAN, 49 Sherman Ave., Jersey City, N. J.
The Tuners' Magazine
A Monthly Journal, Devoted to the Joint Interests of
the Manufacturers and Tuners of
Musical Instruments.
SVMNER L. BALES, Editor and Proprietor
No. 1 San Rafael, Cincinnati, Ohio
Issued the First of the Month.
Terms, $1.00 per Year.
OLDEST PLATEMAKERS
IN AMERICA
' John Davenport Co.
Stamford,
Conn.
THE
12
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
OiuTTECHNlCAL DEPARTMENT
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM BRAID WHITE.
SOME REMARKS ON PITCH.
Somebody once said that "one cannot touch
'pitch' and not be reviled." The truth, is of
course, that the moment one undertakes to d-al
with this matter one begins to have trouble from
the start. The questions involved in all discus-
sions of pitch are questions which have agitated the
piano trade, both here and in Europe, for the past
century; all without the slightest probability that
the immediate future will bring about any special
change for the better. Nevertheless, one feels that
the problems are of such importance as always to
be demanding solution, so that discussion is never
out of place. I propose in what follows to set forth
with some denniteness certain points* which seem
to me to h? particularly interesting to the piano
tuner.
As a matter of abstract rightness there can be
no question whatever that uniform pitch is highly
desirable. It is perfectly obvious that the same
sound ought to represent the same note on all
musical instruments and throughout the practice of
(musical art. It seems just as clear that, other
things being equal, the basis of pitch should be as
low as possible. For, since every note in a scale
must be higher or lower according as the basic
pitch note is higher or lower, it is better to be
high than low; on all practical considerations. A
voice, for instance, must strain itself more and
more according as the pitch to which it sings is
higher and higher. The altissimo tones in any
voice are produced always with more or less dif-
ficulty, and the higher they are required to be, the
greater is the difficulty of producing them. Again,
in the case of a piano, the higher the pitch the
greater the strain of the tuned strings on the plate.
This again is bad for the tone producing apparatus.
From practical considerations, in fact, a lower pitch
is better, other things King equal, than a higher.
It would seem to be a very simple matter to have
a uniform tuning fork and to tune all pianos to
that fork. But the problem is far more complex
than this. In England, for instance, they have
been trying for years to secure some uniformity
in pitch matters. And the big obstacle against
which they have always run is the military band
interest. The brass bands and the makers of brass
band instruments have for years been going along,
in England, without regard to the rights artd
wrongs of pitch. They have insisted upon a pitch
ridicuously high (C 3 = 537) and have in conse-
quence forced everybody else more or less to fol-
low their lead. Now, it is very easy to tune a
piano to either the high or the international pitch,
although the process may not be good for the
piano. But it is not easy to change all band in-
struments, all organs and all wood wind to one
pitch from another. In fact, it cannot be done.
Hence until the band and orchestral instruments
are reduced to uniformity we shall never have a
single pitch.
Some of the great symphony orchestras have, in-
deed, insisted upon the international pitch, and
to this extent have encouraged its adoption. But
in point of fact the majority of such orchestras
use a pitch considerably higher, based on that of
their oboe. Oboists are almost all foreigners, with
foreign instruments. Hence the orchestras use
their pitch, and the pianos that are to be played
with these orchestras from time to time must be
FAUST SCHOOL OF TUNING
PUBO, Player-Piano, Pipe and Reed Organ Toning and Re-
pairing, alto Regulating, Voicing, Varnisaing and Polishing.
This formerly was the tuning department of the New Eng-
land Conservatory of Muiic, and Oliver C. Faust waa head
of that department for 20 years previous to its discontinu-
ance.
Courses in mathematical piano scale construction and
drafting of same have been added.
Pupils have daily practise in Chickeriaf ft Sana* faetorr
Year Book sent free apoa request
17-19 GAINSBOROUGH ST., iOSTOH f
tuned to conform therewith. Some great piano
manufacturers whose pianos are constantly being
used with orchestras maintain a number of con-
cert grands at different pitches, corresponding to
those of the different obo^s. All of which is a
nuisance, as we shall unite in agreeing.
From the tuner's point of view, the adoption of
a uniform pitch is something more desirable than
practical. Every tuner should carry with him an
international pitch work and should tune to it
whenever he can. But the plain truth is that to
do this is not so easy as to talk about it. For
the pianos which we tuners have to deal with are
oftener than not relics of scandalous misuse, poor,
wretched remainders from many a season of neg-
lect and mishandling. The question of pitch is un-
fortunately distinctly remote from that great mass
of the people who neither sing nor play in bands,
and whose idea of music is entirely rhythmic.
Consequently the tuner not only has to deal with
pianos which have been allowed to lapse from
pitch, but also with a public which has but slight
interest in the matter. Thus the struggle between
duty and expediency goes on without remission,
while it is hardly to be wondered that the latter
consideration is oftenest accepted.
What, however, in point of fact should be the
tuner's attitude? Undoubtedly, 1 think, he should
do his best always to tune to international pitch,
and to keep all his pianos as nearly as possible
thereto. Old pianos should be drawn to interna-
tional pitch wherever the owner can be made to
see the necessity or desirability of such work. But
it is absurd to tune laboriously to pitch, with per-
haps two or three goings over, and all for the price
of a mere tuning. The tuner who does this sort
of thing is a fool, because he is underrating his
own work*. The man who has so little confidence
in his own ability to make good that lie places it
at an absurdly low value just because he fears the
loss of some paltry business, need not be at all
surprised when he finds later that people take
him precisely at his own value. In matters of
business precedents are dangerous things. Once
set a precedent and no matter how you try to
exorcise it later it will rise again to trouble you
when least you expect it.
Still I cannot help feeling that the tuner who
is a real tuner will continually do his best towards
creating in the minds of his public such a respect
for the musical instruments which they possess as
will induce them to follow his sensible and reason-
able advice as to pitch. The tuner who can achieve
such a feat as this is worthy of all praise. The
first requisite is to gain the complete confidence of
one's clients. Then indeed they may be expected
to take one's advice. Confidence is the result of
demonstration. Only when people find that your
work is good, that you give right value for what
you receive, that your word is to be accepted wifh-
out reservation, will they extend to you that con-
fidence which permits them to take your advice
without misgiving and you to give it in full knowl-
Manufacturers! Dealers! Toners!
Yellow Ivory Keys Made White As Snow
edge that it will be followed. There is no other
solution.
But entirely apart from these considerations, the
musical aspect of uniform pitch has the utmost
significance for the tuner. It will be generally
conceded that the present trend of musical opinion
is distinctly towards the international pitch. Band
instruments makers in the United States are ahead
of their English colleagues in this respect. At the
recent convention of the British Music Trades,
Dr. Vincent made his annual pk-a for the adoption
of international pitch, which, as lately corrected
by Koenig, has been found to be C'\ = 517.85, but,
as usual, the assembled delegates were unable to
do anything in particular, as the band interest,
especially that of the military bands, was the same
formidable obstacle as ever. It is too bad. But
the English people are so much worse off than
we are that we ought to be rather sorry for them.
There is one more pitch to be made. Granting
the present trend towards the international pitch,
with American band instrument makers putting out
lines of international pitch instruments, and with
symphonic orchestras by degrees doing the same
thing, it looks as if we all shall be in the right
fold after awhile. In the meantime, let us tuners
be pioneers and carry on the good work to the
best of our ability, seeing to it that every piano
which comes under our care shall be tuned rightly
at the right pitch.
Communications for this department should be
addressed to the Editor, Technical Department,
The Music Trade Review.
TWO CLEVER AMERICAN ARTISTS.
Mme. Gianelli and Louis Persinger Score Great
Success in the West.
According to newspaper advices received from
the Far West, Mme. Angela Gianelli and her hus-
band, Louis Persinger, are scoring a marked suc-
cess in their tour of this section of the country.
Mme. Gianelli is a daughter of Charles A. Gian-
elli, a member of the floor staff of the New York
headquarters of Mason & Hamlin, and well-
known in retail piano circles.
Mme. GianelH is a pianist who is gaining a well-
deserved prominence in all parts of the musical
world, and her husband, Louis Persinger, is rec-
ognized as one of the foremost violinists on the
concert stage. Their joint recitals are spoken of
in the newspapers as attracting crowded houses.
TOO BUSY TO COURT THE MUSE.
S. R. Smith, the industrious piano man and poet
of Lead, S. D., can't be prevailed upon to write a
new sonnet to his home town, "a thousand miles
above the sea." He is too busy selling Kingsbury
pianos. H e believes that the time to pick black-
berries is when black-berries are ripe, and his poetic
inspirations can be laid aside against the day when
the milkman and newsboy "wait until the snow
plow goes through."
W. A. Ernst has opened a piano store in Peso
Robles, Cal.
"Caplan's Patent Ivory Polish" will do i t
Samples 60 cts. and $1 (dollar sixe will
whiten four sets of piano key*)- t For
further particulars write to
HENRY CAPLAN, 49 Sherman Ave., Jersey City, N. J.
The Tuners' Magazine
A Monthly Journal, Devoted to the Joint Interests of
the Manufacturers and Tuners of
Musical Instruments.
SVMNER L. BALES, Editor and Proprietor
No. 1 San Rafael, Cincinnati, Ohio
Issued the First of the Month.
Terms, $1.00 per Year.
OLDEST PLATEMAKERS
IN AMERICA
' John Davenport Co.
Stamford,
Conn.
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).