Kesh Jig--5 String Fiddle

In folk music, before 1939, and for some time afterward, I suppose that A=432 was more common than any other tuning. Now it's A=440, of course. With few exceptions. My own folk music  efforts, for example.

In a new site I've started putting together, you can hear some of these earlier tunings. The site is Best Blues Music Videos. Some of the performances go way back.

For example a performance of Hesitating Blues by Jelly Roll Morton, sounds like the piano is flat even to A=432.

On the other hand, the same tune by Fiddlin Arthur Smith, (not posted), from about the same time, has the fiddle sharp even by contemporary standards.

I don't really know what to make of this. It occurred to me that old recordings may have, in some cases, had the pitch raised in the studio during the remastering. But, how could I find that out for sure?

Middle C in Natural Tuning

There is a tuning for middle C that fits A-432 harmoniously. Maybe even perfectly. That tuning is C-256 Hz. This has been the scientific standard for middle C for decades.

Current standard is C-267 plus something past the decimal point. Just another number to defy the natural order.

I posted a video presentation on Tonic Power with Middle C.

I have tuning forks from scientific surplus that are 256 and 128 Hz. Also not long ago I got a tuning fork that vibrates at 432 Hz.

Maybe we are starting to come full circle here.