sage Praetorius distinctly says the old organ high pitch had been a whole tone above his Cammerton, with which we shall find his tertia minore combines to make the required interval. The term tertia minore, or inferiore, is used by Praetorius to describe a low pitch, often preferred in England and the Netherlands, in Italy and in some parts of Germany. An organist, instead of transposing a whole tone down from the Catnmerton, would for the tertia minore have to transpose a minor third.
Corroboration of this pitch is found in Silbermann's organ in Strasbourg minster ( 1713-1716), the pitch of which, taken in 1880 and reduced to 59° F (as are all pitches in this article), is a' 393.2. An old organ at Versailles (1789) was very near this example, a' 395.8. Ellis gave Dom Bedos (L' Art du facture d'orgues, Paris, 1766) as authority for a mean tone a' 376.6. Sir F. G. Ouseley's comparison of the church and chamber pitches of Orlando Gib bons (vide Ellis's lecture) clearly shows the minor third in Great Britain in the first half of the 17th century. But the narrowing continued. Bernhardt Schmidt, better known in England as Father Smith, was invited about 1660 to build the organ for the Chapel Royal, Whitehall; two years later he built the organ in Durham Cathedral a' 474.1, difference a whole tone, and practically agree ing with the Cammerton of Praetorius. The Hampton Court organ of 1690 shows that Schmidt had further lowered his pitch a semi tone, to a' 441.7. What happened at Durham was that at some subsequent date the pipes were shifted up a semitone to bring the organ into conformity with this lower pitch, with which it is prob able Schmidt's organs in St. Paul's and the Temple, and also Trin ity college, Cambridge, agreed.
The final adoption of the low church pitch as in the 18th century was no doubt influenced by the introduction of the violin, which would not bear the high tension to which the lutes and viols had been strained. Harpsichords had long been preferred to the tertia minore. The Chorton of Praetorius, 422.8, is practically the same pitch as that of the fork the possession of which has been attributed to Handel, a' 422.5. It is a very fair mean between G. Silbermann's 18th-century Dresden pitch, a' 415, and the organs of Renatus Harris, a' 428.7. Stein tuned Mozart's piano to a fork a' 421.6, and the Broadwood pianos used at the first London Philharmonic Society concerts (1813) were tuned to a fork c" 5o6.8, which gives a mean tone a' According to Schindler (Niederrheinische Musik-Zeitung, 1855, Nos. 8 and 9) and the report of the French Commission, 1859, the
rise in pitch began at the Congress of Vienna in 1816, the military bands being the cause. With the improvements in wind instru ments this continued, as more brilliant effects were gained. In 1823 Weber's Euryanthe is recorded as having been played in Vienna at a' 437-5, and in 1834 Kreutzer's Nachtlager at a' 44o. The measurements are doubtful, but the upward tendency is clear. Scheibler, by his simple and accurate tonometer, has recorded pitches in Vienna about 1834 from a' 433.9 to 440.2. About that time, or it may be a few years earlier, Sir George Smart estab lished a fork for the Philharmonic Society, a' 433.2. Forks intend ed for this vibration number, stamped "Philharmonic," were sold as late as 1846. But about that year the performing pitch of the Society had reached 452.5. Sir Michael Costa was the conductor 1846-54, and from his acceptance of that high pitch the fork became known as Costa's, and its inception was attributed to him, though on insufficient grounds. In 1874 a further rise in the fork to a' 454 was instigated by Sir Charles Halle. The British army is required by His Majesty's Rules and Regulations to play at the Philharmonic pitch; but a fork tuned to a' 452.5 in 1890 was the standard for the Military Training School at Kneller Hall until, after an Army Order of Dec. 1928, the military bands followed the Philharmonic Society's adoption in 1896 of the diapason normal.
It was the irrepressible upward tendency that caused the French Government in 1859, acting with the advice of Halevy, Meyerbeer, Auber, Ambroise Thomas and Rossini, to establish by law the diapason normal, i.e., a 439 at 68° Fahr. or a 435 at 59° Fahr. Other countries have gradually followed, and, with few exceptions, the low pitch derived from the diapason normal may be said to prevail throughout the musical world. Great Britain was the last to fall in, but the predominance of the low pitch is assured. The proprietors of Queen's Hall, London, did much for it when they undertook the alteration, at great expense, of their large concert organ, which had only just been erected. In 1896 the Philharmonic Society adopted the diapason normal and in 1899 Messrs. Broadwood made a successful effort to get the same vibration number accepted by their competitors in Great Britain. The high pitch remains only where there are large concert organs not yet lowered, and with the military and brass bands.