352 Mr. J. Bishop on the Influence of the Pitch of the 



Shortly after the commencement of the present century there 

 arrived in this country German performers on wind instruments 

 whose pitch was much more acute than that of our standard. 

 An opinion then prevailed that the tones of wind instruments 

 were improved by this higher pitch, and under this impression 

 the Philharmonic Society and the orchestral departments of 

 the theatres acceded to this strange notion, or what might rather 

 be termed delusion. 



The effect of this alteration in the fundamental pitch of music 

 has been very important. The pianoforte-makers have been 

 obliged to shorten the strings of their instruments ; the organ- 

 builders to shorten their pipes ; the flute-makers to cut off a por- 

 tion of the length of their tubes ; and what is termed the opera 

 pitch has transformed the C of the olden time into D ; and since 

 Nature has made no corresponding change in the length of the 

 cords of the vocal organs of the human race, it is manifest that 

 some changes must be made, either to adapt musical composi- 

 tions to the changes in musical pitch; or to reduce the standard 

 pitch conformably to the structure of the human organs, in order 

 to render their execution possible. 



It has been already stated that the greater portion of our best 

 music w T as composed at a period when the tuning-fork made 

 about 512 vibrations for C. This is the case in the works of 

 Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, and in the old madrigals and masses. 

 Let us suppose a person has a tenor voice whose limit on the 

 old scale of pitch is A. He can no longer sing the same music 

 when A is transformed into B. Take, again, the soprano or alto, 

 w T here, with the new pitch, the music is rendered impossible of 

 execution. We find accordingly that, in order to diminish the 

 evils which the present pitch has inflicted on the human voice, a 

 large number of Handel's and Mozart's popular songs have been 

 transposed by Callcott and others into lower keys, so as to bring 

 them, for private use, into a pitch as near as possible to that in 

 use in the time of the composers. This is, however, only a partial 

 remedy for the much greater evil, since it leaves the entire works 

 of these great masters untouched as far as relates to their per- 

 formance in public. Now, although this may be easily effected 

 in short pieces of music, no one would think of changing the 

 key for such a work as the Messiah, or a whole Mass ; and yet 

 many singers can no longer join in the execution of these cele- 

 brated productions. It must not be forgotten that in this age 

 of vocal harmony, music was intended for assemblages of choral 

 performers, and not merely for the few who possess such an 

 extended range of voice as would enable them to disregard the 

 change of pitch. 



AVe come now to the effects produced on the organs of voice 



