Re: [Harp-L] A-432

[Eric Nielsen <ericbarnak@xxxxxxxxx>]

Great playing by you and your friends. I always love to hear the youngsters
playing the old tunes. Timeless.

Eric

On Thu, Dec 25, 2014 at 4:28 PM, Trip <trip.tunes@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Merry Christmas everybody!
>
> My friend who was inquiring about tuning his harps down to A432 is a
> killer folk musician - not a historian or a musicologist, he's what Pete
> Seeger referred to as a practitioner in "the folk process", half truths and
> tall tales. If you want the real deal always listen up when Winslow speaks.
>
> Here's a taste of my friend doing what he does best. There are two clips
> here, one with Ernie and his musical partner in the Four O'clock Flowers
> and then Ernie, Jackson Lynch and myself playing at a memorial a couple
> weeks ago for the late Allan Block who's sandal shop in Greenwich Village
> in the late 50s and early 60s was where folks came to jam after Washington
> Square picking ended. Seated in the front row and about to join us on stage
> to also pay tribute were Rory Block, Maria Mulduar, Happy Traum, Josh White
> Jr, Stefan Grossman, and other notables.
>
> Enjoy!
>
> http://youtu.be/J1Wo73d7B2s
>
> http://youtu.be/qSBdeJCiDXk
>
> Sent from my iPhone
> --
> Trip Henderson
> https://soundcloud.com/trip-henderson
> www.youtube.com/user/TheWhistlingWolves
>
>
> > On Dec 25, 2014, at 2:21 AM, Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> >
> > The history of pitch standards is far more complex than Trip's friend
> suggests. The Nazi story is not supported by the timeline of A440, which
> was standardized in the United States as early as 1926.
> >
> > From the Wikipedia A440 article: "Prior to the standardization on 440
> Hz, many countries and organizations followed the Austrian government's
> 1885 recommendation of 435 Hz. The American music industry reached an
> informal standard of 440 Hz in 1926, and some began using it in instrument
> manufacturing. In 1936 the American Standards Association recommended that
> the A above middle C be tuned to 440 Hz.[1] This standard was taken up by
> the International Organization for Standardization in 1955 (reaffirmed by
> them in 1975) as ISO 16.[2] Although not universally accepted, since then
> it has served as the audio frequency reference for the calibration of
> acoustic equipment and the tuning of pianos, violins, and other musical
> instruments."
> >
> > For more historical depth on the subject, try:
> >
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concert_pitch#History_of_pitch_standards_in_Western_music
> > Winslow
> > zzzz
> > ________________________________
> > From: Trip <trip.tunes@xxxxxxxxx>
> > To: "<harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2014 1:58 PM
> > Subject: Re: [Harp-L] A-432
> >
> >
> > Hello all,
> >
> > For those who have asked why the heck would you want to drop tune to
> A432 the following is from my friend who asked me about the possibilities.
> >
> > "Well, tuning standards varied widely among composers and orchestras
> until the 50's when A440 became standardized, at least in the US. Verdi,
> for example, and others preferred a flatter standard like 432 because it
> produced softer and sweeter tones. A strange but serious anecdote to this
> story is that a high-ranking Nazi official believed that 440 music would
> elicit more aggressive responses from the audience and he was able to
> convince the government to impose that tuning as the nation-wide standard
> sometime in the early 40's, I believe. To get a little more heavy about it,
> the frequencies of notes and overtones in the 432 spectrum have a higher
> incidence of falling in line with the numerical sequences of Phi, aka the
> Fibonacci sequence or the Golden Ratio; i.e. the ratio of what we tend to
> find aesthetically pleasing in nature. Me personally, I've often played
> with my guitar tuned that way and I like the sound and it's easier to hit
> notes, but I've always been held back slightly by not being able to
> incorporate my harps into it. So I'm interested in seeing if I could
> customize just one set of harps to use for my own purposes. That's the long
> answer. "
> >
> > Sent from my iPhone
> > --
> > Trip Henderson
> > https://soundcloud.com/trip-henderson
> > www.youtube.com/user/TheWhistlingWolves
>