At a session last night somebody played a piece of what he called "Elizabethan Music" on a classical guitar. I was quite amused by some of the comments from other people in the circle such as:

"Funny how Elizabethan music all seems to have a certain sound"

"Yeah sort of harpsichordish"

Then the one that made me cringe was:

"That's cos they didn't have tuners in those days"

This dopey comment did however get me thinking about what reference was used for standard tuning in days of yore? How did they measure pitch accurately? Any comments?