Dave

I have a couple of inexpensive recorders I play around on, and my daughter has a few primitive flutes. I'll take the recorder sound anyday.

It's also a shame that the standard pitch has risen through the years. The mellower sound of previous centuries was more pleasant to listen to.

Adding to my banjo comments, early banjos were typically tuned to around A or E (depending on which type of tuning pattern was prefered) while modern banjos are tuned higher to C or G.

I have an old fiddle built around 1800 that has been in my family since before the Civil War. It's neck is about a half inch shorter than modern fiddles. It was designed, like Strads, to be pitched to a lower pitch (I'm thinking around 415Hz vs today's 450Hz, but I'm going from memory and could be off). My old fiddle sounds it's best when tuned with gut strings designed for lower pitch and tuned that way. Unfortunately, nobody I know in this area play in that tuning, so long ago I resigned myself to todays standard pitch. However, I refuse to put a longer neck on the instrument to optimise for higher pitch. It sounds good as is but has a darker tone than what you normally hear. I like it!

Dave

One thing has me puzzled, so I must be missing something. If the neck is made longer, that would seem to imply a lower frequency. But you indicated it would optimize for a higher note. I'm guessing the strings you prefer must be thicker and heavier, or you must tighten them less. Is that the case, or what am I missing?

The shorter neck and lower pitch was because of the very soft tension strength of pure gut strings used at the time. Todays strings are much stronger and can be made tighter. Tighter means louder, with brighter being a side effct.

BTW, I stated todays standad pitch as 450Hz. That was a typo. It should have read "440Hz".

Dave

I've played one-keyed flutes, and I can tell you that they are a mother-bear to play in tune. Cross-fingering doesn't work nearly as well on a flute as it does on a recorder, oboe or clarinet. You can tell if one of these is being used in a recording by the F, G# and Bb being either out of tune or at a lower volume level. The 4-keyed flute of Mozart's time didn't have the intonation problem, but both 1- and 4- key flutes have a very fuzzy attack. Dead give away in a recording.

Pitch ~1700 and earlier was A=405. That rose to 415 for most of the 1700's and 1800's. The modern pitch is 440, although some orchestras like the Berlin Philharmonic are rumored to use as high as 456 to give the orchestra a "bright" sound, something like plywood cabinets. OK, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Anyway, all of my recorders are pitched at 440 so they can be played with modern instruments.

Bob

Cool links related to your discussion, the history of musical scales:

• The Musical Scale
  
• History of Pitch
  
• Math and Music: A Primer