pitch

pitch in music, the position of a tone in the musical scale , today designated by a letter name and determined by the frequency of vibration of the source of the tone. Pitch is an attribute of every musical tone; the fundamental, or first harmonic , of any tone is perceived as its pitch. The earliest successful attempt to standardize pitch was made in 1858, when a commission of musicians and scientists appointed by the French government settled upon an A of 435 cycles per second; this standard was adopted by an international conference at Vienna in 1889. In the United States, however, the prevailing standard is an A of 440 cycles per second. Before the middle of the 19th cent., pitch varied according to time, place, and medium of musical performance; since the classical period the trend has been gradually upward. The relative pitch of a tone, in contrast to absolute pitch , is an expression of its pitch in relation to the pitch of some other tone taken as a standard.

pitch a sticky resinous black or dark brown substance that is semi-liquid when hot and hardens when cold, taken as the type of blackness or darkness (as in pitch-dark, pitch-black).

See also he that touches pitch shall be defiled.

pitch (rake) The angle made by a lineation with the strike of the surface on which it occurs.