Refinement of Pitch

Abstract

The problem of wanting to, or being able to, put the notion of acoustical preference or acoustical purity to rest, either by being content to use comprehensive equal temperament in all instrumental ensembles, as Kolisch and his fellow-serialists would have had it, or by adopting the Fokker-supported 31-tone per octave Huygenian system, was not destined to be settled. Theoretical discussions on pitch and its refinements have been a perennial matter for discussion since antiquity. The never-ending conundrum of the search for an answer to the problem of pitch and its refinement was brought to Fokker’s attention by Stravinsky’s response to a query from his friend and collaborator Robert Craft (The American composer and writer Robert Craft (b. 1923) has written several volumes on conversations with Stravinsky (1882–1971)). The question that Mr. Craft raised was: “Is any musical element still susceptible to radical exploitation and development?” Stravinsky’s answer: “Yes, pitch.” (Adriaan Fokker, “Refinement of Pitch,” Organ Institute Quarterly, 10 (1963), pp. 13–14).