Concert Pitch
The pitch actually heard — the reference for transposing instruments
Related
Concert pitch is the pitch actually heard and the reference against which transposing instruments are compared. In a concert-pitch score every part is written at the same pitch level, which makes vertical relationships easiest to analyse.
The term has a second sense: a tuning standard. A4 = 440 Hz is common today, Baroque bands may use 415 Hz, and concerts sometimes tune to 442 Hz. Concert pitch is thus relative both to transposed notation and to historical standards.
The two senses are often merged. Transposition is a gap between notation and sound; a pitch standard is a gap in frequency. "Play at concert pitch" in rehearsal usually means the former, not a request to retune.
Sources
- 实际音高的记谱含义与调音标准，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Pitch"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.