Musical question regarding concert pitch/philosophical pitch

  • Thread starter Thread starter physics_06er
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Pitch
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Start your own thread to ask a follow-up.
4 replies · 5K views
physics_06er
Messages
25
Reaction score
0
Hi there

Can someone please help me with this question I have no idea how to work it out...

A tuning called 'philosophical pitch' has C4 (Middle C) at 256Hz. What is the difference in cents between notes at this pitch standard and those in modern concert pitch (A4 at 440Hz)?

Thanks in advance
physics_06er
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Difference in "cents"? I have never heard of this. Is that percentage difference in frequency?
 
Chi Meson said:
Difference in "cents"? I have never heard of this. Is that percentage difference in frequency?
A cent is a piano tuning term. It is 1/100th of a semitone or the 1/1200th root of an octave. Since 12 semitones make an octave which is double the base frequency, between A440 Hz and A# = 440*2^(1/12) = 466 Hz there is a difference of 26 Hz = 100 cents. So one cent above A440 would be:

[tex]F_0*2^{1/1200} = 440*1.000058 = 440.26 Hz[/tex]

AM
 
Last edited:
physics_06er said:
Hi there

Can someone please help me with this question I have no idea how to work it out...

A tuning called 'philosophical pitch' has C4 (Middle C) at 256Hz. What is the difference in cents between notes at this pitch standard and those in modern concert pitch (A4 at 440Hz)?

Thanks in advance
physics_06er
Use:

[tex]C4*2^{n/1200} = A4[/tex]

where n is the number of cents.

AM
 
However, Ottoman or Turkish scale is different. it contains quarter and 1/8
tones but Ottoman Music is monophonic.