You may have noticed that before a concert, the first violinist plays an “A” for the other instruments in the orchestra to tune up. By a decree issued in 1955, its pitch must be 440 Hertz or 440 cycles per second. Before this standard was put in place, the pitch was lower.

This fact is one of the reasons why the experimental string ensemble 432 Chamber Orchestra was set up. The number corresponds to the frequently of the A-tone, hence the instruments from the orchestra sound eight Hertz lower than is the standard. “The difference in pitch can only be discerned when you listen to us perform live”, says Ivan Yanakiev, conductor of 432 Chamber Orchestra:

“We launched the project in 2013 when I chanced upon recordings that had been altered digitally from the standard to a lower pitch. What impressed me deeply was the difference in the way I perceived this music. So, I decided I wanted to hear the result in an acoustic environment with instruments initially attuned to 432 Hertz.”

Ivan Yanakiev was a guest at the Bulgarian National Radio’s Studio No. 13 together with Ivailo Danailov, concertmaster of 432 Chamber Orchestra who explained that making music in a pitch where “A” corresponds to a frequency of 432 Hertz is an experience that is completely different:

“Intonation in this pitch is so much easier because the lower the frequency the more luxuriant the overtones revealed by the instrument’s tone quality. The works we perform are composed in a pitch whereby the A-tone has 432 cycles per second. One of the reasons to up this number is the acoustics of latter-day concert halls as well as their size. Nonetheless any instrumentalist will find it much more pleasant to play in a lower pitch.”

The ensemble has 15 members most of whom play with the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra. As Ivan Yanakiev says the principal incentive for the existence of 432 Chamber Orchestra will be the audience and the way it reacts to the new pitch. One of the priorities the formation has set itself is to tour Bulgaria and abroad.

“We have already made our first studio recording – of a work by Edvard Grieg called Suite from Holberg’s time. We plan on a premiere concert, probably in April. On 19 May we shall have the pleasure of performing in Studio No. 1 of the BNR and we plan on including singers as soloists as well. Knowing that from 1882 until 1884 the official pitch in Italy was 432 Hertz, much of Verdi’s work was in fact created in this pitch. That was a time when the composer was director of La Scala in Milan.”

English version: Milena Daynova