[Bell Historians] Bell tuning; standard pitches

[David Bryant]

International Standard Pitch was adopted in 1939, so it certainly was the
standard in 1951. By A=440, we get C above middle C (i.e. that to which the
Taylor 2-ton C bells are tuned) as being 523.25Hz. Most of the Taylor C
bells are tuned flat of this; as you say most of them are around the 518 Hz
mark, varying between about 516 and 520, although York 11th is somewhat
flatter. Does C=516 conform to any pitch standard?

David

----- Original Message -----
From: "Christopher POVEY" <cmpovey at 3...>
To: "bellhistorians" <bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2003 7:55 PM
Subject: [Bell Historians] Bell tuning; standard pitches


Assessing the accuracy of older rings of bells against Standard Pitch
(A=440hz) is misleading, as that is unlikely to have been the pitch against
which the bells were tuned originally, ie the goalposts have moved. When
Evesham were cast and tuned in 1951, Taylors were using C=518 as the
standard. This frequency is now C -17.5 cents on the Standard Pitch.

Chris Povey