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432 Hz or 440 Hz

Two chairs

Does the tuning of a note change what it does to you? One chair says yes, and can feel it. The other says the numbers were set by committee. Both are sitting down.

The question

Concert pitch — the A that orchestras tune to — was standardised at 440 Hz in the twentieth century. Some musicians and healers say 432 Hz is more natural, more "in tune with the cosmos," calmer on the body. Is there anything to it?

Round 1
The chair for 432432 divides cleanly into numbers that turn up across sacred geometry and older instruments; 440 doesn't.
The chair for 440The 8 Hz difference is smaller than the tuning drift between two live performances of the same piece. If it mattered that much, we'd hear it everywhere.
Round 2
The chair for 432Many people report feeling calmer listening to music retuned down to 432. Reports are not nothing.
The chair for 440Blind tests where listeners don't know which version they're hearing have not shown a reliable preference for 432.
Round 3
The chair for 432Pitch drifted upward over centuries for brightness and projection, not for the listener's body. Why assume the loudest-sounding standard is the right one?
The chair for 440"Cosmic" numerology works in any base you like; pick a different unit of time and the magic numbers change.
Where are you sitting?
The chair for 432The chair for 440Neither — I’m still listening
Held open

Retuning down eight hertz makes music very slightly lower and, for many people, slightly softer, which may be the whole effect. Whether the number itself does anything is unproven. It costs nothing to try and nothing to doubt.

Listen to both. Notice what the noticing does.
scroll to hear both
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