{"id":2475,"date":"2019-05-16T16:21:36","date_gmt":"2019-05-16T16:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/audioordeal.co.uk\/?p=2475"},"modified":"2020-05-19T09:50:37","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T09:50:37","slug":"is-432-hz-the-magic-tuning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/audioordeal.co.uk\/is-432-hz-the-magic-tuning\/","title":{"rendered":"Is 432 Hz the magic tuning? [It is not!]"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
432 Hz is one of the biggest music “conspiracy” theories in the world. Today, I’m going to explore what we know about it and why it is such a contentious topic, with many people attesting to its success, and others calling it out as another tin-foil-hat raving. We look at a topic with explanations of Illuminati involvement, to how your warm breath makes your oboe swell.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
I feel like it is therefore very apt that we use the following song as the most relevant example of a song recorded at the 432 Hz tuning:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
For the most part, modern music is tuned to 440 Hz. What this means is that the middle A (above middle C) on a piano is tuned to 440 Hz.\u00a0<\/p>
Music is formed out of pleasing ratios of frequency, as opposed to fixed frequencies themselves. If you play 400 Hz and 800 Hz together, you get a pleasing octave sound.\u00a0<\/p>
You would get the same pleasing result if it is 401.25 Hz and 802.50 Hz, as our ears like the ratio between them more than the exact frequencies themselves.\u00a0<\/p>
If everyone has the same pitch to tune to (in today’s world 440 Hz), then we can rock up to an open mic night with our guitar and know we are tuned to the rest of the band. Without this tuning, every time a new musician comes on, they have to adopt the “standard” of the other instruments in that moment.\u00a0<\/p>
An established tuning standard also means instruments which can be readily changed, like a recorder or flute, are guaranteed to be in tune with the rest of the band.<\/p>
This means that over the history of music, as long as the instruments were in tune with themselves and the other instruments in the group, it didn’t really matter what the exact frequencies were.\u00a0<\/p>
Since then, and curiously coinciding with the widespread use of the internet, theories have come up renouncing the use of 440 Hz and calling for people to use the supposedly more natural 432 Hz.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
We only had the \u201cWestern\u201d 440Hz tuning from 1939, when previous attempts to unify the pitch failed. It should be noted that it never was a binary debate between 432 and 440. There were many other frequencies which were considered for middle A, most falling between 400Hz and 500Hz. That\u2019s not to say everywhere now uses 440Hz exclusively, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra uses 442Hz.<\/p>
There is something else here though that in a way is more important than anything. Regardless of your position in the debate, you must concede that the \u201cmagic frequency\u201d whatever it may be is inherently linked to one thing in the room. Temperature.<\/p>
There is a reason that many orchestras tune to their oboes. Here\u2019s the problem: oboes are vulnerable to temperature changes which affect their pitch. They are also harder to tune than a string instrument and so they are normally the default instrument to tune to. The room temperature therefore will dictate the exact tuning that is played in any orchestra that tunes to the oboe. So if you are looking for that mystical connection between frequency and the room, there you go.<\/p>
When people say that Mozart used A432, it is flat-out wrong. These old composers used pitch forks. They tuned to the pitch fork and as long as everything they used was in tune with the pitch fork, their music would sound good. If the sheet music was sent off to another composer, who no doubt had a slightly different pitch fork, then they would have heard the music in a slightly different tuning.<\/p>