1939 Music Shifted from 432 Hz to 440 Hz

Written by Mitch Santell
Producer / Co-founder

​In  1939, the music industry shifted from 432 Hz to 440 Hz. The question I have always asked myself is, "Why?" Check out this video and let me know what you think. My ears are very sensitive so I can tell the difference. Can you?

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Now check this out:

What is 432 Hz ?

432 Hz is one of the possible ways to tune musical instruments, also known as the Tuning Note "A" and A=432. Music tuned to 432 Hz sounds better than contemporary music which is tuned at A=440.

During historical periods when instrumental music rose in prominence (relative to the voice), there was a continuous tendency for pitch levels to rise, also known as the pitch inflation.

At the times of Bach, the baroque tuning used A=415 Hz. The famous Stradivarius was tuned to A=432 Hz according to the Verdi tuning. Instruments from old civilizations such as the Greeks and Egyptians were also tuned to A=432 Hz according to backto432hz.org . Indian instruments also are based on A=432 Hz.

In 1939 Germany and England determined 440 Hz as the frequency of the musical pitch, after first recommendations in the 19th century, as production of A=440 instruments already started before 1900.Their effort to standardize this worldwide didn't succeed for then. But in 1955 at a congres of musicians in London, 440 Hz still became the international ISO 16-standard.  Many protests of (among others) French musicians, who didn't want 440 Hz as the standard, didn't help unfortunately.

How does 432 Hz work?

Based on cymatics research, which is the study of vibrational patterns that are the result of exposing matter to certain frequencies (like water or sand), there's a big difference between A=440 and A=432.
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The water sound images of A=432 are more clear with much higher harmonics, while A=440 just looks like "bad soup". We refer to the research of Robert Boerman and the video's of Jamie Buturff.

The cohhlea in our inner ear is a water filled spiral, which resonates naturally to music tuned to A=432 Hz, as the cochlea is based on the principles of phi-demping. A well known example is the famous B&W Nautilus speaker (the original one), which spirals are based on the same principe.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/2qO5Wim

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The Inner Ear