This month's Challenge Question: Specs & Techs from IHS Engineering360:
A time traveler went back to 1742 and kidnapped George
Frideric Handel so he could bring him to the Kennedy Center in NYC in December
of 2015 to enjoy his masterpiece Messiah,
played by the National Symphony Orchestra. As soon as the first notes are
played Handel cringes and shakes his head. What's wrong?
And the answer is:
Handel doesn't like the pitch, which to his trained ear
sounds sharp. Modern orchestras use a tuning standard of 440 Hz for A above
middle C. However, this has not always been the case. This standard has varied
by as much as 50 Hz over the years. A tuning fork from 1740 associated with
Handel has been found to have a frequency of 422.5 Hz. Handel's Messiah was
composed in 1741 and likely followed this tuning convention. Thus the modern
orchestra would sound sharp to Handel. Still, once Handel adjusted to the
higher pitch, he no doubt would have appreciated the National Symphony
Orchestra's playing of his work. Music has much less to do with pitch than it
has to do with the intervals (differences between pitches).
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