Playing at that pitch gives a warmer sound to everything, including string instruments.

Using a historic temperament also helps since it provides purer intervals in the easier keys to play. Which is interesting, but must be a product of them being easier in the first place.

Doing blind testing working through the commonly available temperaments, if properly introduced, non-musicians often are faster to prefer something other than ET (phone home!) all the time than educated musicians. Which merely means they've been taught to expect all keys to be equally out of tune. But it's not terminal, they can get over it.

Brass players tend to be like engineers - they love a problem - so they will even work to come up with solutions if they need to play at 415.

People with perfect pitch....well, if they complain, what about people with perfect pitch when it was 415? Those with synesthesia....now this WOULD be very interesting.

Good question and a good idea! Bound to create some controversy on this list, full of experts.

I agree with Noel - it is often a good idea. Hymns are usually printed in "tame" keys in order to be playable by many people, but if you are playing at A440, it is a good idea to transpose down a 1/2 step in some cases. For example, I find "Lobe den Herren" too high in G and too dull in F, but F-sharp is great. That is, if you are playing in equal temperament. In Europe you will find organs pitched all over the place, and in varying temperaments. If I am ever in a position to commission an organ, I would be tempted to have it pitched at A415 in something like one of the Neidhardt temperaments. Low pitch is rare in the U.S., because most organs are expected to play with other modern instruments and play modern choral repertoire meant for A440. For a while, I played on the magnificent Martin Pasi organ at St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha, which has a dual temperament system, one of which is 1/4-comma meantone. Playing in that temperament made the hymn-singing so much more lively and exciting. And Noel is right - the only people who complained were other organists; the congregation got used to it and liked the brilliant sound of those pure thirds.

You're right - this is a major problem with pipe instruments...which makes me wonder, what about historic transposing acoustic harpsichords? What did they do to tune to make the instrument playable?

Digital instruments, well made, move the temperament center with the pitch, just as acoustic instrument tuners do.

Equal Temperament is the equivalent of McDonalds being considered fine cuisine, pr as Pizza Hut winning the people's choice here in town.

Brass players tend to be like engineers - they love a problem - so they will even work to come up with solutions if they need to play at 415.

Not neccesarily; we're just used to problems. It's why we have tuning slides and a library of mouthpieces.

Using a half step flat is a relatively big drop ... is it just because you have an autotransposer? I'd think something like A=430-435 might be better to warm up the sound and relax the singers just a little. I don't have perfect pitch, but I do have enough physical pitch discrimination (how the notes feel/sound as I sing them) that I really hate to sing in another key than the key I'm looking at. If it can be changed by a thumb over the key signature (F# to F, say) then that makes it more palatable, but unfortunately, very little music is written in F#. Or B, F#, G#, A#, D#, or C#. And I can't make myself imagine a Gb, Cb, or Fb key signature when singing. So in practice this only works in E or A and maybe D with very few accidentals.

@MrCopper, the idea of using -1 on the auto transposer was simply because that's the only way I have right now of approximating 415, aside from transposing at sight which I'm not particularly good at. It's not perfect in the slightest, but it would approximate the effect. I'm also not sure of if an organ originally tuned at 440 can be tuned down to 415 without any adverse effects to the instrument.

I read that the thing Bach criticized about Silbermanns was their temperament. However, they DO sound good! Being able to play in all keys is a very good thing, even if it doesn't tickle the ears of a given musician.

@Choirparts, that whole video is awesome. Period. I loved watching that: thank you so much for posting it!!

We could complicate this discussion with the question of Kammerton v. Chorton. And that the organ parts for Bach's Leipzig Cantatas are written a whole-tone "too low"; i.e. the organ is written for like a transposing instrument 'in D'.

Kammerton v. Chorton

Kammerton corresponded closely to our modern understanding of Baroque pitch (approximately A=415), and this was the common pitch at which most (orchestral) instruments played in Bach's time. On the other hand, Chorton denoted a common tuning for pipe organs and music sing in churches and was just about a whole tone higher than Kammerton. If an organ tuned at Chorton was to play with instruments pitched at the Baroque Kammerton, it was necessary for the organist to transpose. Many scores from that period provide some indication of that consideration.