Doug
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<http://www.belcantosociety.org/belcanto/pages/magazine2.html>
LaRouche and the Tuning Pitch
In an article in The Washington Post on the LaRouche-sponsored bill to lower the tuning pitch, Joe McLellan wrote, "Zucker has taken a firm lead in opposing the legislation" and went on to quote Opera Fanatic at length, calling OF's articles "an exhaustive study of pitch and LaRouche." ("Lyndon LaRouche's Pitch Battle")
Bernard Holland wrote an article in The New York Times about the tuning pitch, based on the LaRouche position ("Singers Join in a Lament about Rising Pitch"). The Times published Zucker's reply, mentioning this magazine ("Illegal Pitch?"). Zucker contended that "[Holland's] claim that [Verdi] legislated a tuning pitch is pure invention." Zucker also maintained that "during most of Verdi's life, tuning pitches were higher than today's-as high as A 457. The mean tuning pitch was in the neighborhood of A 450, which led the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome to recommend it as the standard."
Zucker published an article on LaRouche and the tuning pitch in the Chelsea Clinton News and The Westsider, mentioning Opera Fanatic. Discussing the involvement of Pavarotti, Sutherland, Fischer-Dieskau, Caballé, Domingo, Horne, Freni, Kraus, Tebaldi, Di Stefano, Nilsson, Bergonzi, Bumbry, Milnes, Ameling, Mitchell, Cossotto, Verrett, Bechi, Bacquier, Cappuccilli, Sayão, Lorengar, Schreier, Kabaivanska, Cruz-Romo, R. Raimondi, Ludwig, Moll, E. Moser, L. Quilico, Rothenberger, Robbins-Landon, Kubelik, Chailly, Bonynge, Gavazzeni and hundreds of others in the opera world with LaRouche, Zucker contended:
"Most of the performers have no idea of the real history of the tuning pitch. They believe that until recently it was a half-tone down. However, 440 cps, in general use since early in this century, is lower than the mean tuning pitches in the 19th century, when the tuning pitch ranged as high as A 457-more than a quarter-step above 440. The performers believe A 432 to be a half-step below 440; in actuality it is less than a third of a half-step below. Tuning pitches in the mid-440s, used by some European orchestras, are not wildly higher than 440-contrary to what some of the performers suppose. A 445, for example, is only about one fifth of a half-step higher. Never in history have more people tuned to the same pitch than today. . . ."
The LaRouche bill in no way veils its threat to artistic freedom. According to Article 2 of the bill, state-subsidized organizations must adopt A 432. According to Article 5, "The utilization of instruments of reference"-tuning forks and tone generators-"not conforming to A 432 is punishable by the confiscation of the non-standard object and with a fine for each specimen of $73-$730." The LaRouche literature makes no bones about this, and the petition's celebrity signers are all presumably aware of it. ("Lyndon LaRouche and the Golden Mean")
Francis Church focused on LaRouche and pitch in The Richmond News Leader, quoting Opera Fanatic extensively. He declared:
"Zucker doesn't merely raise his voice in protest. He supports his arguments with facts. . . . He feels LaRouche is using the issue to get more credibility and respectability. . .. "
Church concluded with Zucker saying, "If LaRouche has his way, pitch police might well tramp down the aisles of La Scala to arrest dissenters tuning to A 440." ("Shall Lyndon LaRouche Call the Tuning Pitch?")
In consequence of Opera Fanatic's criticism of LaRouche's bill regarding the tuning pitch, he and Zucker were interviewed by Lars Hoel on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition." Speaking from jail, LaRouche tried to justify his stand on pitch, which Zucker attacked, as in Issue 3. Hoel observed that Zucker "poked holes in the historical and scientific rationales behind LaRouche's position." During the course of the broadcast, one of the signatories of LaRouche's pitch petition, soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson, avowed:
There's nothing in the world that I can do to push my voice any louder, through E and F in the bottom of the voice; I will always have that. And when the pitch is slightly higher, it makes that even more difficult. I've sung Beethoven recitals with fortepiano, and things like "Ah, perfido!" are very, very tough on the voice-but when it was put in the proper pitch, I was in heaven! The piece just fit my voice perfectly.
On the same broadcast, Tim Page of Newsday stated:
"If the LaRouchians and Stefan Zucker want to fight about it, I think that's fine. But I don't think the music world is up in arms. I remember the first time I ever encountered the LaRouchies: They were outside Alice Tully Hall, and they had some petition to ban Vivaldi from the concert halls. They didn't think he had the 'fundamental emotion'- whatever that means. They also recently disrupted a Chicago Symphony performance of 'Brangle,'" a work by Jacob Druckman, and passed out pamphlets saying 'Leonard Slatkin Serves Satan' (Slatkin was the conductor there). This is not normal behavior."
Hoel noted, "Music critic Tim Page thinks all this energy haggling over pitch might be put to a better use, such as including more 20th-century music in the standard concert repertoire."
[Because of the program's format, I didn't get a chance to reply. Bryn-Julson apparently doesn't know that when "Ah, perfido!" was composed, in 1796, the tuning pitch was 422-424 cycles per second. LaRouche's bill specifies that tuning pitches varying from 432 by more than 0.5 hertz are illegal. Were the Italian Senate to enact the bill, in accordance with one of its provisions, she would be fined as much as $730 for using a tuning pitch as low as 424. 432 is too high for most music written prior to 1810 and too low for nearly everything later. (See Issue 3, pp. 39-52.) What Page fails to realize is that, on account of his pitch bill, LaRouche is being taken seriously: The Newark Star-Ledger, The New Yorker and the New York Post all more or less supported it on the grounds that since Pavarotti et al. wanted it, it had to be good. For the same reason, the European press has been very favorable to LaRouche. What could make him more credible than having his bill debated in the Italian Senate? On the subject of modern music, should LaRouche come to power he would prohibit the performance of music by Wagner and anyone since.-SZ]
Opera Fanatic's coverage of the LaRouche-celebrity-singer connection occasioned three articles in the New York Post, one by Sharon Churcher ("Stars Favor One LaRouche Pitch") and two by Clare McHugh ("LaRouche Backers Hit Sour Note" and "Lyndon's Latest Pitch"). McHugh reported complaints by non-celebrity signatories of LaRouche's pitch petition that they were being bombarded by the LaRouchites with propaganda and were being hit up for donations.