Alfred J. Hipkins

“ The Halberstadt pitch is nearly a semitone higher, which again agrees with the statement of Praetorius, and also Schlick's high C organ. Yet it would seem there had been a still higher pitch used in the old ecclesiastical music. Upon this interesting question Praetorius is confused and difficult to understand, but he neer viavers about the transposition of a fourth. In one passage he distinctly says the old organ high pitch had been a whole tone above his Carnmertori, with which we shall find his tertia miriore combines to make the required interval. ”

“ But a positive identity of pitch cannot be claimed for any period ot time, and certainly not for the early organs; the foot-rule of the organ-builder, which had to do with the lengths of the pipes, and which varied in every country and province, could easily cause a difference of a semitone. Scale and wind-pressure are also important factors. But with all these often opposed conditions, we find less variation than might be expected, the main and really important divergence being due to the necessity of transposition, which added a very high pitch to the primarily com ement low one. ”

“ Other countries have gradually followed and, th few exceptions, the low pitch derived from the Diapason Normal may be said to prevail throughout the musical world. Great Britain has been the last to fall in, but the predominance of the low pitch, introduced at Covent Garden Opera since 1880, is assured The proprietors of Queen's Hall, London, did much for it when they undertook the alteration, at great expense, of their large concert organ, which had only just been erected In 1896 the Philharmonic Society decided upon a performing pitch, ostensibly at 68° Fahr., of al 439 ”

“ The difference of a minor third, or, as we shall see later, a whole tone, had replaced the earlier fourth. Sir Frederick Gore Ouseley's comparison of the church and chamber pitches of Orlando Gibbons (vide Ellis's lecture) clearly shows the minor third in Great Britain in the first half of the 17th century. ”