Tuning forks as time travel machines: pitch standardisation and historicism

Abstract

Recent research at the intersection of music and science has described standards of musical pitch as the result of an increasing circulation of actors and artefacts and the rise of science in the musical field; like the metre, the kilo, or the second, the unified musical measure was invented to create a unified space. I argue here that there was another key factor in standardisation: the canonisation of music. As scores acquired unprecedented authority, fixing pitch over time became both a practical necessity and a constituent part of national musical canons, complete with sonic relics of a glorious past. This interest in history ultimately fostered the production of an archive of diverse sonic worlds, which contradicted the project of creating a uniform measure. Even today, pitch remains a “sonic thing” that escapes objectification within a unique material and immaterial standard. Analysing how pitch was invested with the ability to reference specific time periods, I show that tuning forks and other technologies embodying pitch became time travel machines, attesting to the entanglement of sonic standardisation with the constitution of the Western musical heritage.

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