Editing Concert pitch (section)

===Pitch inflation===<!--[[Pitch inflation]] redirects here-->
When instrumental music has risen in prominence (relative to vocal music), there has been a consistent tendency for pitch standards to rise. This led to reform efforts on at least two occasions. At the beginning of the 17th century, [[Michael Praetorius]] reported in his encyclopedic ''Syntagma musicum'' that pitch levels had become so high that singers were experiencing severe throat strain and [[lute]]nists and [[viol]] players were complaining of snapped strings. The standard voice ranges he cites show that the pitch level of his time, at least in the part of Germany where he lived, was at least a [[minor third]] higher than today's. Solutions to this problem were sporadic and local, but generally involved the establishment of separate standards for voice and organ ({{Langx|de|Chorton|translation=choir tone|link=no}}) and for chamber ensembles ({{Langx|de|Kammerton|translation=chamber tone|link=no}}). Where the two were combined, as for example in a [[cantata]], the singers and instrumentalists might use music written in different keys. This kept pitch inflation at bay for some two centuries.<ref>{{cite book |title=Syntagma Musicum: Parts I and II. De Organographia. II, Parts 1–2 |author=Michael Praetorius |isbn=9780198162605 |publisher=Clarendon Press |date=1991 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/syntagmamusicumi0000prae }}{{vn|date=August 2013}}</ref>

Concert pitch rose further in the 19th century, evidenced by tuning forks of that era in France. The pipe organ tuning fork in [[Chapels of Versailles|Versailles Chapel]] from 1795 is 390&nbsp;Hz,<ref name=CambridgeOrgan/> an 1810 [[Paris Opera]] tuning fork sounds at A&nbsp;=&nbsp;423&nbsp;Hz, an 1822 fork gives A&nbsp;=&nbsp;432&nbsp;Hz, and an 1855 fork gives A&nbsp;=&nbsp;449&nbsp;Hz.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VKadRqLPJaYC&pg=PA86 |page=86 |title=The Historical Performance of Music: An Introduction |author1=Colin Lawson |author2=Robin Stowell |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1999 |isbn=9780521627382}}</ref> At [[La Scala]] in Milan the A above middle C rose as high as {{Audio-nohelp|Tone 451Hz.ogg|451&nbsp;Hz}}.<ref name=CambridgeOrgan>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oisXAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT81 |page=81 |title=The Cambridge Companion to the Organ |editor1=Nicholas Thistlethwaite |editor2=Geoffrey Webber |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1999 |isbn=9781107494039}}</ref>