eli5 how do we know our standard for musical notes has stayed the same before recording existed couldn’t notes have changed without anyone even realizing
In: 1
We know they’ve changed. As a matter of fact it wasn’t even consistent in Western music until it was agreed that everyone should use 440 Hz for A.
Before this, many followed the French standard at 435 Hz
It was formalized as a standard ISO 16 in 1975
It still varies depending on what you’re doing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A440_(pitch_standard)
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