Tuning the World

“In pursuing the origin story of a single musical note, Gribenski shows us that nothing about the ways we hear, evaluate, or feel about music and musicians is ‘natural’ or ‘universal.’ Her virtuosic interdisciplinary research convincingly reveals how—as the battling forces of metaphysics, historical precedence, mathematics and experimental sciences, instrument construction, composition and repertoire, performers’ health, and aesthetic preference competed for attention—the relentless imperial ambitions of a few nations led to the pitch A’s designation as 440 hertz. Tuning the World is required reading for music scholars and practitioners, historians of science, and diplomats alike.” * Nina Eidsheim, University of California, Los Angeles *“Tuning the World is a lovely and profoundly important book. Through rigorous analysis and innovative use of archival materials, Gribenski strikes out on a rich, new path that will lead the way for historians of science, sound studies scholars, and musicologists for years to come.” * Alexandra Hui, Mississippi State University *“Tuning the World is an impressive achievement. At once sweeping and fine-grained, it reveals the high stakes of pitch standardization as it helped shape the contemporary soundscape. Gribenski compellingly weaves together pivotal yet overlooked episodes in the history of transatlantic sonic culture and political economy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This book proposes a distinctive and original argument, supported by voluminous historical detail, most or all of which will be new to readers.” * Benjamin Steege, Columbia University *“Ultimately, Tuning the World reveals the intricate interconnectedness of science, music and globalization in the making of a fragile transnational sonic modernity, while offering, in a highly nuanced way, insight into its very limits. As such, this book should appeal to historians and students of scientific diplomacy and standardization, as well as those interested in the intersection of music and science, and the history of music and acoustics in particular.” * British Journal for the History of Science *“Fanny Gribenski’s Tuning the World: The Rise of 440 Hertz in Music, Science & Politics, 1859–1955 is a page-turner. This is not exactly what one would expect when taking up a manuscript about the standardization of something as seemingly intangible as A=440 Hertz (Hz), the long-established point of reference for tuning practices in Western music. Yet Tuning the World does more than just explain since when this has been the case, and why; it is such a rich, well-written, and exciting book that I would recommend it as an introduction to the history of standardization proper.” * Revue de musicologie *“Perhaps the book’s strongest contribution is that it shows how implicit ideas of music and musicality—on what music is, can be, or should be—frustrated scientific, political, and even musicological attempts at standardization. By trying to align and streamline musical cultures and practices across international divides, the history of pitch standardization actually highlights the fact that music, and art in general, regularly resists categorization and standardization… . With such a compelling and well-written narrative, based on so much historical detail, Tuning the World offers an excellent starting point and indispensable source for other scholars to further explore these and other questions.” * History of Humanities *“Pitch standards are the result of a potent cocktail of ideological, artistic, emotional, and technical concerns. The standardization of pitch in the West was a gradual process wherein an empowered group of diplomats, broadcasters, artists, and engineers attempted to flatten the jagged terrain of pitch practices into a single measurable plane. Tuning the World brings this flattening into sharp relief.” * Journal of Music Theory *“Gribenski delivers a comprehensive and convincing story of pitch standardization in and beyond Europe, specifically France, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, and North America.” * Isis *“In Tuning the World, Grinbenski offers an engaging, often even exciting, and deeply approachable history of what might seem like a wildly obscure topic: the establishment of an international tuning standard… The power of her text is that it uses the A 440 concept as a reference against which to measure the distance of global practices and the various priorities and oversights built into disciplines at a moment of rising international communication, exchange, and colonial extraction… . Tuning the World should certainly be required reading for music scholars who perhaps take our tuning reference for granted. Gribenski has written a very engaging text that I can imagine proving interesting for non-specialists keen to learn more about music’s material histories.” * Sound Studies *

Fanny Gribenski is assistant professor of music at New York University. She is the author of one book in French.