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UDC 534.321 : 681.8 Ref. No. : ISO/R 18 - 1955 (E)
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IS0
I N T ERN AT1 O 4L ORGANIZATION FOR STANDARDIZATION
RECOMMEND AT ION
R 16
STI qDARD TUNING FREQUENCY
STANDARD MUSICAL PITCH)
ISf EDITION
November 1955
COPYRIGHT RESERVED
The copy1 it of IS0 Recommendations and IS0 Standards
belongs tl IS0 Member Bodies. Reproduction of these
documents, I any country, may be authorized therefore only
by the na' na1 standards organization of that country, being
a member of ISO.
hat coun
For each individual coud r the only valid standard is the national standard of
Printed in Switzerland
Copies to be obtained through the national standards organizations.
Also issued in French and Ru ian.
I
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BRIEF HISTORY
ommendation R 16 was prepared by Technical Committee
This IS0 RI
ISO/TC 43 - AC( stics, the Secretariat of which is held by the British Standards
Institution.
At the sug stion of the International Federation of the National
Standardizing As: ciations (ISA), now superseded by the International Organ-
ization for Stand dization (ISO), the British Standards Institution convened,
in May 1938, a C iference to discuss the question of trying to secure an inter-
national standard nusical pitch. This Conference adopted 440 c/s as an inter-
national standarc )f pitch.
Similar devel )merits were also taking place in other countries, the outcome
of which was tha an international Conference under the auspices of the ISA
was held in Lon1 ln in May 1939. Five countries (France, Germany, Italy,
Netherlands and le United Kingdom) sent delegates and the views of other
countries, as well LS those of interested organizations, were placed before the O
Conference. The Conference endorsed the proposal that the international
11 pitch should be 440 c/s for A in the treble stave. Shortly
standard for mus
after that decisio was made, however, war intervened, and the report of the
Conference did nc reach the musical bodies and authorities in some countries,
with the result th ; after the war some musical bodies, in ignorance of the 1939
decision, propose( ;hat an international Conference should be convened to agree
It
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