Ongoing History Daily: Re-tuning the world from 440 Hz
In the 1930s, a worldwide agreement was struck: Middle A on the piano would be forever tuned to 440 Hz everywhere, thereby making sure that all music and musical instruments would be tuned the same way.
Some still disagree with that, saying that 440 Hz is a conspiracy plot involving crowd control. Some believe that a more natural frequency is 438 Hz. Others think that 432 Hz is better, capable of unlocking the mysteries of consciousness.
If you Google “432 Hz,” you’ll find all kinds of examples of music played to that tuning—and it does sound kind of cool, especially when applied to classical music.
And that’s not all. There’s an even fringier element that says we should be tuning middle A to 528 Hz because of its alleged divine properties, “forming harmonically” in hydrospace”—whatever that means.
