The Prima Voce Series

Pitching

Despite the fact that most records made before 1950 have a label stamped with the information "78 rpm" (i.e. 78 revolutions per minute), playback speed is not to be taken for granted. In fact, due to the unreliability of the primitive recording apparatus used to make these records, the correct playback speed of a side might be as low as 68rpm or as high as 88 rpm! Playing the record too slowly will cause everything to sound flat; similarly if the playback speed is too high, the sound will be sharp. A contemporary listener would simply alter the gramophone speed control lever until they heard the voice of the artist that they had heard in the opera house the previous evening. For the modern day listener, things are a little more difficult!

Our way of establishing correct playback speed is to establish the key in which the music was written and use a piano to play along with the record. The record's speed can then be altered via an electric turntable equipped with fine increments of pitch control until the sound 'fits' together. The turntable we use is a Technics SP-15 where the figures on the digital display indicate a percentage variation in speed from the standard 78rpm, e.g. +0.1 = 78.078 rpm. A change of roughly 5.5 % on this turntable is the equivalent in musical terms of transposition by a semitone.

There are a number of clues that aid us in pitching a record. Most obviously, the voice of the singer must sound natural, as must any instruments included in the accompaniment. If for example, the playback speed of a chosen side 'fits' into a key at both +3.0 and -2.5 we will usually be able to determine which sounds most natural, especially if we are familiar with other recordings of the singer in question.

Other signs also provide valuable information but we usually use them to verify what our ears have already told us. Some examples are given below:

  • The recording apparatus used tended to be consistent during the course of that session, and therefore the playback speeds of records made on the same day also tend to be the same. Sequences and patterns quickly begin to emerge when one is working with a group of recordings and anomalies are easily identified. Every rule however has its exception, and it has been known for playback speed to change between records with consecutive matrix numbers and even between the beginning and end of one side! The 1936 recording that Marian Anderson made of Schumann's Der Nussbaum for HMV is one such example.
  • It is often known whether an artist was prone to transposing an aria up or down and whether their tessitura would enable them to reach the highest or lowest note we are hearing.
  • Basic musical principles regarding the relationship between the instrumental accompaniment and the key signature. Given that the lowest note on a guitar is an E, if we encounter a guitar accompaniment in which bass E-flats are frequently to be heard, it may mean that the record is running too slowly.