Piero Cappuccilli - Ernani - Verdi tuning

Piero Cappuccilli (baritone) demonstrates the difference between the scientific musical pitch of A=432 Hz (the so-called "Verdi tuning") and the higher, unnatural pitch of A=440. In this clip, he sings excerpts from Carlo's aria "Oh, de'verd'anni miei" from the opera "Ernani" by Giuseppe Verdi.

If one uses the high tuning (which is more or less standard today), the baritone is forced to incorrectly pass the register before the E-natural, as a result of the effort on his vocal cords. This destroys the original color intended by Verdi, and is also harmful to the human singing voice in the long run (especially for less developed voices). Cappuccilli first sings with the piano tuned to A=432, and not passing register, as Verdi wanted, and then with the piano tuned to A=440, indicating to the audience with his hand when the early passage occurred on E-flat. "Watch out for those E-flats," he said before singing it.

A REVOLUTION IN MUSIC

No less than a revolution in musical history was unleashed on April 9, 1988 at the Casa Verdi in Milan, Italy, when the Schiller Institute brought together some of the world's most highly-regarded classical singers and instrumentalists, to demand a return to rationality in musical tuning and performance.

The demand was led by the top speakers at the conference, renowned operatic soprano Renata Tebaldi, baritone Piero Cappuccilli, and Helga Zepp-LaRouche, chairwoman of the Schiller Institute. They and others called for an end to the high-pitched tuning, which has been literally destroying all but the most gifted voices during the past century, and for a return to the principles of classical aesthetics, according to which the process of musical composition is just as lawful as are the orbits of the planets in the solar system.

Read more:
http://www.schillerinstitute.org/conf-iclc/1980s/conf_88_milan_tuning.html

Category:

Music

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• cappuccilli
• ernani
• giuseppe
• verdi
• schiller
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• helga
• zepp
• larouche
• opera
• baritone
• register
• registration
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[spectralmusic]

I read a Schiller Institute paper on the so-called "Foundations of Scientific Musical Tuning", one of the most absurd examples of psuedo-science in music I've read. Those who who believe in numerology (with regard to fixed values) have something wrong with their minds. The Earth's cycle isn't an exact 24 hours, nor is it stable at any frequency, but more importantly our division of this span into 24 is completely arbitary, as is the division of these units into 60 and 60 again. So then is 256Hz!

[LAROUCHEpunktSE]

@spectralmusic I would start with the hypothesis laid out in Kepler's "World Harmony," which was the basis for the well-tempered system developed around the time of J.S. Bach. Compare that to Kepler's earlier hypothesis in the "Mysterium Cosmographicum."

As another defender of Kepler, Albert Einstein, would say: "God doesn't play dice!" I.e., there is right and wrong with respect to planetary orbits and musical tuning; it's not arbitrary. But let's keep refining our hypotheses.

[wlymexico]

Could the one who posted this video add some subtitles? I don´t understand what he says, and therefore I don't know which one is the low and which is the high. Thanks

[LAROUCHEpunktSE]

He first sings with the piano tuned to C=256, and not passing register, as Verdi wanted, and then with the piano tuned to A=440, indicating to the audience with his hand when the early passage occurred on E-flat.

[semiramide1945]

Thank you for this- One can clearly hear the difference in the tunings. I have often thought especially with Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini, how much easier they would be to sing today if the orginal tunings were used. Perhaps the sound would not be as brilliant as what we are used to today at A440, but more true to the composers and so many singers today could sing them as conceived- Grazie ancora per questo bel dono! Ernesto Vasselli

[SENAFOREVER]

Very interesting, in the orginal pitch he sounds like Mattia Battistini.

[cangjie12]

@spectralmusic hahaha have you seen 'the cosmic 432' (on youtube)? :P

[bodiloto]

Ecco perché nel 21 secolo il vero orchestra lirico non esiste più!

440-444-450 hz e la follia.

Perché non sentiamo più voci come quelle di Marconi,Caruso,De Lucia,Fleta,Pertile,Ruffo,Stra­cciari,Granforte,Burzio,Ponsel­le ecc...?

Perché nel 21 secolo LA e 440-444 e a volte 450 hz,un vero suicidio.

Ecco come il maestro Herbert Von Karajan e i suoi colleghi nella loro ricerca della "perfezione artistica" hanno distrutto lo strumento più prezioso mai esistito sulla terra,cioè :

LA VOCE!!!!

[uberto66]

@wlymexico the first is the low and the second is the high.

[spectralmusic]

@spectralmusic I should say 21-note meantone is ideal for harmony, but overtone-based tunings are used for music that doesn't modulate (Indian Classical Music). Split-key pianos were favoured by J.Christian. Bach, allowing 17 playable notes tuned to meantone (each black-key note having two variants: 1 for # and another for b). For free-pitch instruments and voice, the full 21 tones come into use. # are 1 comma lower than enharmonic b, and x' are 1 comma lower than enharmonic bb. (see "55-EDO").

[spectralmusic]

@LAROUCHEpunktSE 'God' does indeed "play dice". The Newtonian 'clockwork universe' model was shown to be oversimplified by chaos/quantum theory. The motion of the planets is not absolute (for example, the moon is moving away from the Earth by about 2.5 cm each year). What all this has to do with tuning is anyone's guess. There were numerous 'well temperaments' and 12-note octaves were just a compromise for pianos. A 21-note-per-octave (55-EDO) meantone tuning (with #, b, x, bb) is the ideal.

[spectralmusic]

I'm all for reviving original tuning standards and temperaments if such music benefits from it. (Harpsichords certainly require lower tuning.) But "The Foundations of Scientific Musical Tuning" is psuedo-science with silly ad hominem attacks on Helmholtz. The proof of his hypothesis is in the synthesis, and I've synthesized bells by assembing inharmonic overtones, clarinets by assembling strong odd overtones. What more proof need there be? Read Plomp's "Tonal Consonance and Critical Bandwidth".