Re:The “432 Hz vs. 440 Hz” conspiracy theory
by hunter2_ on Monday October 24, 2016 @08:37PM
(#12784231)
As a classically trained but relatively amateur singer, and professional audio engineer, this fascinates me because I would've thought such breaks vary enough from person to person that it wouldn't be possible for a composer/conductor to expect it to be somewhere with anything like quarter-tone precision. Cool!
Re:The “432 Hz vs. 440 Hz” conspiracy theory
by teilo on Tuesday October 25, 2016 @11:32AM
(#12788792)
Thank you. This is the part of the conversation that gets drowned out by the taoy-wowy numerology crap.
If memory serves, a number of opera singers, including Pavoratti, were lobbying for a change of the international standard to 432. I thought this was a bit foolish, as the problem is better addressed by simply agreeing to adopt an alternate tuning for those pieces that would benefit from it.
Re:The “432 Hz vs. 440 Hz” conspiracy theory
by haberman on Monday October 24, 2016 @07:58PM
(#12783995)
Yes I am in North America (Seattle area). However I've also noticed this on recordings of international groups. For example, both Bach Collegium Japan and Taverner Choir (England) have recorded Handel's Messiah at A=415. I didn't realize Germany favored higher pitch.
Personally I prefer singing at A=415 since my voice is lower set. :)
Re:The “432 Hz vs. 440 Hz” conspiracy theory
by combatentropy on Monday October 24, 2016 @06:53PM
(#12783630)
You are an opera singer and a computer programmer? That's pretty cool.
One thing that gets opera singers (like me) up in a knot about this, is that the human voice is not a tune-able instrument. There are registration issues in fixed frequency ranges, which we can't change. At A440, a register shift happens a quarter tone lower than where Mozart and Verdi expected it. That creates a sound difference that an audience can hear, and a big difference technically.