The A Standard

Symphony players get their pitch by sounding an A at the start of every concert. But A, the gold standard of music, has undergone a heady inflation in the past 100 years. The august London Philharmonic Society in 1813 tuned for its first concert from an oboe-sounded A set at 847 vibrations a second, two vibrations above the century-old tuning fork of George Handel. Then at the Congress of Vienna, military bands discovered that by raising the pitch of their instruments they could ring out sharper fortissimi during the day and crisper waltzes at night. By 1846 the London Philharmonic was trilling Bach fugues after tuning to an oboe A of 905 vibrations. In 19th-Century U.S., where overheated concert halls dried out the instruments, the pitch rose also.

The only laggard was France. In 1859, Paris composers got the Government to stabilize A at 870 vibrations, at 59DEG Fahrenheit.

Last week the French made an international issue of the A. The French Office of Art and Creation charged that Russia, England and the U.S. had now permitted A to soar to a shrill 912 vibrations. Actually the U.S. standard concert pitch is 880, by French count.* France diplomatically offered to compromise with the Big Three at 880--which is still ten vibrations more than its classical composers allowed--if the Big Three will stick to its professed standard.

* By U.S. count, 440. Great Britain and the U.S. count the completed vibration to & fro as one unit; the French count each half.

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