The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #138837   Message #3179996
Posted By: Jack Campin
01-Jul-11 - 07:47 PM
Thread Name: Tune Add: The Hole in the Wall (Henry Purcell)
Subject: RE: Tune Add: The Hole in the Wall: Henry Purcell
According to this article

Opera Now, 18 June 2009

the right pitch for Purcell's "Fairy Queen" was A=405. That's a few years later than "Abdelazer", and the standard pitch might have been a bit lower earlier. You can buy A=405 recorders (there is a surviving English one at that pitch) and A=392 is reasonably common. The same presumably goes for oboes.

I haven't yet seen anybody walk into a pub session with an instrument tuned to A=405 expecting everybody to join in. Maybe it happens at some early music festivals, with people sitting round the bar in pitch order having their preferred pitch and temperament system printed on their T-shirts.