CONTEIBUTIONS FROM THE PHYSICAL LABORATORY OF THE 

 MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. 



XLIX. — HISTORICAL NOTES RELATING TO MUSICAL 

 PITCH IN THE UNITED STATES. 



By Charles R. Cross. 



Presented March 14, 1900. Received March 20, 1900. 



• 



Except in a very general way there is not much to be said regarding 

 the early history of musical pitch in this country. The different manu- 

 facturers and musical organizations necessarily followed the usage abroad, 

 and the same gradual rise in pitch that occurred there occurred here 

 also. 



The great harm arising from the excessive height to which the pitch 

 had risen at the time was recognized by those interested in the procure- 

 ment of the Great Organ for the Boston Music Hall, and when it was 

 erected in 1863, it was tuned to the French pitch, A3 = 435 double 

 vibrations per second, corresponding to a tempered C3 of 258.65 vibra- 

 tions, which had been established in France four years before. It was 

 hoped and expected that the result of this would be the gradual accept- 

 ance of the "normal diapason" as a standard throughout the United 

 States. A second German organ, by the same maker, Walcker of Lud- 

 wigsburg, built a few years later for the First Church of Boston, was 

 tuned to the French pitch, at which pitch it has remained up to the 

 present time. Also in 1868, the French pitch was introduced as a 

 standard into the public schools of Boston, by vote of the School Com- 

 mittee, although it never obtained a firm foothold there. Meanwhile the 

 musical instruments in use by the various orchestras were still at the high 

 pitch, and opera troupes and other foreign musical organizations em- 

 ployed the same standard. Serious difficulty was experienced from this 

 cause, esj^ecially when the Great Organ was used in connection with an 

 orchestra. After a time, in fact, at two separate periods, the Harvard 

 Symphony Orchestra was furnished with instruments in accord with the 

 organ, but apart from the concerts of this society, at theatres and else- 



