Since 1859 the French standard for A (pitch used for orchestra tuning, traditionally given by the oboe or clarinet) has been a tuning fork scaled to, vibrate 870.9 times per sec. at a temperature of 15° Centigrade.* Though it has never been adopted officially by international convention the French A has gradually obtained all over the world. Last fortnight Dr. Carl Maria Haselbrunner, editor of the Oesterreicliische Musikerzeitung and honorary president of the Austrian Musical Association strongly declared for such a convention. "There is a terrible chaos in tuning," said he, "a regular musical anarchy. And all because one man in an orchestra . . . sets the A higher or lower to suit his own whim. Why, if any two orchestras, and the best ones at that, were suddenly brought together, they'd be out of tune! It's a ridiculous musical situation. ... It actually happened to Hans Richter† that when he complained of the tuning by a clarinettist the man answered, 'I'm all right, but the rest of the orchestra is too low.' "
Dr. Haselbrunner would set up a rigid, whim-proof A and agree to abide by it. He would then have it pressed on phonograph discs for world distribution. He would broadcast it at intervals much as Greenwich Time is broadcast.
Best means for such pitch dissemination would be the radio. The phonograph is unreliable since the slightest variation of the turntable from set speed (78 revolutions per min.) changes the pitch. The veracity of tuning-forks depends upon atmospheric and temperature constancy. Dr. Haselbrunner's convention would put a stop to an occasional practice of recording laboratories, namely, varying the pitch to fit the peculiar abilities of recording artists, a practice distressing to persons with a sense of absolute pitch.
Sheik Scoop
That the late, woman-worshiped Cinemactor Valentino may have died at just the right time—before talking & singing pictures came in—for his memory to remain inviolate in countless lovelorn breasts, was indicated last week when Wanamaker's department store in Manhattan made this unexpected announcement:
"First and exclusive release of the only recording of the voice of Rudolph Valentino singing his favorite ballad
"Kashmiri Song, in English
"Also El Relicario, in Spanish."
A natural question was: If such a recording existed, why was it not released until four years after Valentino's death?
The story: In 1923, Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co. asked Valentino, then, the rage in The Sheik and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, to try making records. They rehearsed him on operatic arias but were not pleased. He slurred, mumbled, muffed, his diction was atrocious. Finally the Kashmiri Song (because he sang it mutely in The Sheik) and El Relicario (because of his Latin cast) were chosen. To Conductor Ralph Mazziotta who coached him, Valentino inscribed a photograph "In remembrance of my first record. (Hope it is a good one!)"
Conductor Mazziotta carefully kept the photograph but when he listened to Valentino's record he looked sad. It just would not do. The record was shelved.