minstrel: 440 amd a semi-tone down?

[Lisa and Ken Theriot]

David wrote:

[But I have read that in period the notes should not be based on 440hz,
but a simi-tone lower. My question is, from a practical standpoint,
should I tune my flutes to this?]

And Vivien said:

[Personally, I think you'd be better off keeping A=440.]

Me, too.

Quoting from another article at:

http://www.aswltd.com/guideww.htm


"Pitch standards also changed about the middle of the seventeenth
century. The old renaissance high pitch for wind instruments, about
a'=462 Hz. and a semitone above modern pitch, gave way to a French
chamber pitch of c. a'=394 Hz., a whole tone below a'=440 Hz.; in the
early eighteenth century, this was superseded by a pitch of about a'=409
or 410. The current practice of making baroque woodwind instruments at
a'=415 has in fact very little basis in history. In addition, some
modern makers have not been careful in redesigning their instruments to
compensate for the difference between a'=409 and a'=415, producing
instruments which have intonation and response problems. There were also
a small number of instruments from the late baroque pitched at a'=435,
about a semitone above a'=409. The conclusion to be drawn here is that
the current practice of playing baroque music at a'=415 is no more nor
less authentic than playing at a'=440 and that both pitches require a
total redesign of the original instruments, not a crude shortening and
retuning."


Adelaide