The “432 Hz vs. 440 Hz” conspiracy theory
I helped do a lot of costumer relations for a music instrument maker who makes fixed-tuning instruments (which cannot be retuned by players, it's a fine art).<p>By nature of the instrument, we had a lot of relatively mystical-minded customers, and a solid subset inquired about the availability of instruments tuned to a 432 Hz reference.<p>What was interesting is that there is indeed a difference in 'feel' (character, vibe...) for most acoustic instruments when you tune them down e.g. to an alternative, lower, pitch reference. (Because most aspects of the system are either non-linear e.g. our sensitivity to various pitches, and maybe some sort of psychoacoustic quasi-significance assignment... ... or because simply they are changing one term in a function, e.g. given a fixed thickness of vibrating membrane, tuning it to a different pitch yields a different relationship to the many 'modes' in the system akin to standing waves... etc etc etc)<p>There's nothing mystical about it all of course... but the vibe changes, and many people prefer a slightly lower pitch, and now it is 'carried' by the instruments.<p>Then you get fuzzy thinking... I like this better, it feels better, QED an alternative pitch reference is the key to life itself.<p>What's funny in my experience is that our specific instrument did not have a fixed equal tempered tuning anyway, for technical reasons... so even with a 432 Hz A reference, the pitch values for say C# or F# were not === what they 'should' be according to 432 Hz adherents.<p>But try explaining that gently to an adherent... especially in the context of kindly debunking their mysticism around this topic... <wince>