Perhaps we should not be surprised by the strange ideas of conspiracy theorists, but we have recently come across a particularly odd belief that has stuck around for decades; musical instruments are tuned to the wrong frequency, and it is affecting human behavior. According to the conspiracy theory, it all goes back to the Nazis.
As you probably know of musical instruments, they need to be tuned on a regular basis in order to sound right by themselves and with other instruments. When you play a C, you want it to sound like the same C somebody else is playing, and for it to sound like the right note.
“In physics, the pitch of a musical tone is a function of the speed at which air has been set in motion. The speed is measured as the number of complete vibrations – backwards and forwards – made by a particle of air in one second,” reads a paper on the topic. “A speed of one complete vibration per second (or cycle per second) is one Hertz. The greater the number of cycles per second, the higher the pitch perceived.”
While modern instruments are all tuned in the same way, tuning has not been standardized throughout history, varying wildly from place to place and from century to century.
“To take Germany prior to 1600 as an example, organ pitch there is thought to have varied from a high of A=567 Hz for the first simple pipe organs of the Middle Ages to a low of A=377 Hz for the early modern German organ around 1511,” the paper continues.
“But not even at one particular time in one region of a country was standardization deemed necessary. It seems that composers and performers were accustomed to taking local variations in the tuning of organs and other keyboard instruments into account, either by writing a score in more than one key, or by transposing at sight – thereby accommodating the fixed pitch ranges of other instruments and the singers in the ensemble.”
Certain composers might prefer A to be tuned to different frequencies, with Handel favoring 423 Hz and Mozart a sensible 422. But for the large part, it was a hot mess with larger venues requiring different pitches, and development in instruments meaning that they could be pitched higher added to the problem.
Slowly, the pitch of A became standardized to 440 Hz. In 1955, the International Organization for Standardization set it at that frequency, before affirming it 20 years later. The nonsense of having different tuning standards for different areas was over, but unfortunately, it sparked a few whackier conspiracy theories.
“Today’s conspiracy theories about musical tuning are premised on the idea that music tuned to A-440 negatively affects the human body or mind and can thus be weaponized against listeners,” another paper on the topic explains. “The same premise is at the heart of the speculation most commonly expressed by 432 Hz proponents, which is that 432 Hz has special scientific, cosmic, or occult qualities that make it preferable and/or beneficial to tune to.”
According to conspiracy theories, Joseph Goebbels, chief propagandist for the Nazis, was instrumental in the change, or else the Illuminati, the Rockefellers, or other conspiracy theorist favorites, and it was aimed at manipulating their enemies (without evidence, of course). Meanwhile, they have pushed the idea that 432 Hz the “natural resonance of the universe“, or else special as it is the sum of four consecutive primes: 103 + 107 + 109 + 113.
The latter argument is particularly silly, as frequency is a measurement of the number of vibrations per second.
“Originally (from ancient times through the Middle Ages), the hour was divided into 2, 3, 4, or 12 equal parts, but never into 60 (so there wasn’t even a minute),” mathematician, author, and guitar player Jakub Marian explains in a blog post. “Fractions of a minute were not used at all (there were no devices at the time that could measure such short periods of time). Had we stuck with dividing everything into 12 parts, the “second” could have become 1/12 of a minute or perhaps 1/1728 of an hour (1728 = 12 × 12 × 12), which would give a completely different numerical value for the same frequency. The current definition is just a coincidence.”
Others have pointed to 432 Hz being more “natural”, or more in line with ancient musical practices, but neither argument holds up.
“We don’t know the absolute pitches of ancient strings, which in any case would have been variable depending on resources, location, circumstances etc,” Armand D’Angour, professor at Jesus College at the University of Oxford, and a researcher on ancient Greek music, told Reuters. “It is a fantasy to suggest that we know that any tuning was pinpointed as A=432Hz.”
This isn’t to say it is an entirely uninteresting topic. While more bombastic claims of musical manipulation and prime numbers are nonsensical, studying the effect of music on the brain is pretty interesting, with suggestions that infrasound could be responsible for reports of hauntings. A few very small studies have looked into 440/432 Hz and their effect on the brain, with one finding a slight “although not significant” decrease in blood pressure and slightly more enjoyment when listening to 432 Hz music.
Further study with a larger number of participants could reveal something more interesting, but there is no conspiracy behind the adoption of 440 Hz music. If 432 Hz was found to be better, and they’ve had plenty of time to play around with it, musicians would surely adopt it.
Source Link: 432 Hz Or 440 Hz? The Conspiracy Theory That All The World's Instruments Are Tuned Wrong
