# What Tuning Pitch did Chopin use?



## ernzo (Jun 14, 2012)

There's info about Handel having a tuning fork wich produced A-422,5 Hz..

It is comonly accepted that Mozart used A-421.6hz.. (I could be mistaken tho)

However I cannot find info on what pitch might Chopin be using, or prefereed...

In Chopin's time there was not an absolute consensus on Tuning Pitch, and only God knows what did the Polish do at that time.. The Diapason Normale of A-435Hz was about to be stablished (1859), Scheibler's A-440Hz already existed (yet it wasnt standart), and I guess the Verdi tuning of A-432Hz already existed, but it was not still stablished as standart (1876 Brussels, 1881 Milan)...

Add to that the fact that different piano builders used to tune their pianos on diferent pitches, and the fact that Conservatories, Philharmonic Orchestras, Churches and so on changed their pitch from place to place, country to country.. sometimes to adapt to their organs (wich changed pitch over time, because of maintenance etc), sometimes for subjective reasons like making the violins sound brighter, and so on...

So what tuning pitch did Chopin use? Are there no records of what tuning forks he used? I mean he was kind of a celebrity, he traveled to many places.. surely somebody must have been involved and could have written it down.. I have even read Liszt's biography of Chopin only to find nothing about pitch..

Also I did read somewhere that he prefeered tuning perfect thirds.. wich I guess might put him outside the 12T Equal Temperament that we use today... is that true?

It would seem important to me, as Chopin is really one of the best piano composers in history, whose work's sublime perfection has yet to be surpassed...


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