4 3 2 (1) – START!

– 27 January 2026: 125 years since Giuseppe Verdi’s death –

On 10 February 1884, from Genoa, Giuseppe Verdi wrote a letter to the Musical Commission of the Italian Government in which he asked that a unified pitch be adopted by law throughout Italy: “I formally requested the orchestras of several Italian cities, among them that of La Scala, to lower the pitch and to conform to the French standard.”

In 1858, after a major scandal at the Paris Opera—which resulted in a letter from Hector Berlioz addressed to the French government explaining why it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain healthy singers because of the orchestra’s high pitch—a commission was established to investigate the question of pitch throughout France. The commission was chaired by J. Pelletier (Secretary-General of the Ministry of State); Fromental Halévy served as rapporteur, and its members included the leading composers living in Paris at the time: Hector Berlioz, Gioachino Rossini, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Ambroise Thomas, Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, César Despretz, Camille Doucet, Jules Antoine Lissajous, Général Mellinet, and Édouard Monnais.

Beginning on 17 July 1858, the commission conducted its research and, after requesting tuning forks from theatres throughout France, submitted its report on 1 February 1859. Following this report, the French government enacted a law making it illegal throughout France to use a pitch higher than 435 Hz, measured at 15 °C (the standard scientific reference temperature in nineteenth-century France). This standard became known as the diapason normal, the French standard pitch.

Exactly this was what Verdi was asking of the Italian government after 25 years: a standard pitch in all Italian theatres, ending his letter with a statement that made the idea clear even to non-musicians: “The language of music is universal: why, then, should the note called LA (A) in Paris or in Milan become a SI bemolle (B-flat) in Rome?”

But in this letter Verdi goes even deeper in his request: “If the Musical Commission established by our Government believes, for mathematical reasons, that it should reduce the 870 vibrations [435 Hz] of the French pitch to 864 [432 Hz], the difference is so small—almost imperceptible to the ear—that I readily agree. It would be a serious, very serious [grave, gravissimo] error to adopt, as has been proposed from Rome, a pitch of 900 vibrations [450 Hz]. I too share your opinion that lowering the pitch takes nothing away from the sonority and brilliance of the performance; on the contrary, it gives something more noble, fuller, and more majestic than could ever be produced by the shrillness of an excessively high pitch.”

This comes after extensive discussions throughout Italy about the most advantageous pitch for voices. Already in 1881, between 16 and 22 June, at the Congresso dei Musicisti Italiani, held in Milan, there were lengthy debates on the topic of pitch: how it affects voices and opera, and what investments needed to be made by orchestras (which kinds of horns to build and purchase, which kinds of strings, etc.). Here, Verdi was represented by Arrigo Boito, his close musical and literary associate. Boito emphasized that Giuseppe Verdi considered 864 vibrations [432 Hz] to be the best pitch, and the sovrintendente of the Teatro San Carlo stated that Giuseppe Verdi had sent him a tuning fork set to the same pitch, which proved much more comfortable, more natural for the singers. After this congress, the Italian government issued a law prohibiting the use in Italy of a pitch higher than 432 Hz, measured at 20 °C.

But this law was in many theatres ignored, hence Verdi’s intervention 3 years later.

Furthermore, before the Vienna Congress on 16 November 1885, which decided on a standardized pitch for the whole of Europe—and at which Arrigo Boito represented Italy—he attended a meeting in Rome, in October 1885, to decide Italy’s official position: 432 Hz.

A few days before leaving for Vienna, Boito received a letter from Verdi, written in Sant’Agata on 8 November, in which he again stated the error of the French diapason normal in favor of 432 Hz: “Principal aim, the standard of concert pitch. Give in, if it cannot be avoided; but not without declaring openly, loudly, and publicly the error, from the scientific point of view, of the 870 vibrations [435 Hz].”

Not only this, but in the same period Giuseppe Verdi was instructing his editor, Giulio Ricordi, to forbid the performance of Otello in theatres that did not use at least 435 Hz, if not 432 Hz…

This blog post is the beginning of a series in preparation for a concert and recording project very dear to me: the world-class baritenor Michael Spyres came up with the idea of building a project around these letters, in which Verdi was struggling to lower the pitch to 432 Hz. From this idea, DiVerdi was born—a project that will be recorded in April of this year together with Musica Ricercata, on period instruments, after extensive research in the Archivio Storico Ricordi and the Bibliothèque nationale de France – I am extremely grateful for all the help and openness.