Concert Pitch Through the Ages

At the beginning of an orchestral concert the oboist usually plays a "Concert A". In North America this note is standardized (440 Hz, or cycles per second), the result of a nation-wide agreement in 1939. But we should not take this pitch for granted! It has not always been so.

David Gordon has created a chart that gives an overview of the variations in frequency of "Concert A" over the centuries.

Click here to download the pdf chart. (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, of course.)

(From David Gordon's website)