Home › Forums › Performing › Tuning to A = 458 to match organ – advice
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balfour-knight.
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March 16, 2026 at 4:20 pm #490935
Morgan Williams
ParticipantHi all,
I’m relatively new to pedal harps (only been playing about 2yr, played lever since childhood). I’m playing Faure’s requiem with a church choir & string ensemble, which I’m really looking forward to.The church organist has been in touch to let us know that the organ there is tuned to A=458. This is way higher than I’ve tuned my harp and I’m concerned it might cause issues. Is this likely to damage my harp?
I’m completely guessing here but I imagine I should:
– tune it up gradually over several days to minimise stress/damage to the strings or soundboard
– only tune the strings I’m using (not the very high notes or very low notes that aren’t scored)
– immediately retune to 440 after the performance, before loading the harp back into the carThis is purely based on “vibes” though than any knowledge or experience – I might be completely wrong, any advice would be very much appreciated!
March 16, 2026 at 4:55 pm #490943carl-swanson
ParticipantGood Lord! Why is the organ tuned so high? You’re going to have to tune to that pitch at least a week in advance to give the harp time to stabilize at that pitch. If you do it only a day or two in advance, it’s going to keep going down.
I found a note frequency chart on the internet, and if A is tuned to 440, then A sharp is 466. You’d almost be better off transposing everything up a half step and then tuning slightly down to match the organ.
March 16, 2026 at 5:28 pm #490950charles-nix
MemberTuning organs is my profession for nearly 50 years. I’ve never seen or heard of an organ that high. Standard organ pitch is A=440 at 70 deg. If the pipes are at about 105 deg, that might happen. Are you Sure of the pitch? Is this a European historical reproduction instrument? I calculate that it is 70 cents sharp of pitch, agreeing with Carl.
Unless the organ is actually manufactured at some high historical pitch, an organ can’t even be tuned higher than typically 445 or so at 70 deg. F
What is the instrument, or what is the church and city?
Are the strings going to tune up to that pitch also?
Seems like the organist should transpose down, and everyone else tune to roughly A=435.
Regarding the harp, I did a rough approximate calculation that the total tension would increase more than 10%. If you can’t transpose up, and the organist won’t transpose down, and that is an accurate pitch they want–if it were me, I would refuse the gig. No gig is worth the strings you will break, let alone risking a soundboard.
Seriously, though, surely there is some mistake: do they never play with flutes or brass? None of those would ever come close to moving short enough to play at that pitch.
March 17, 2026 at 11:19 am #491183ParticipantThanks all. It’s an historic organ that long predates the A=440 standard.
I was going to politely decline the invite (it’s only in a week or so, meaning I don’t have time to transpose and rearrange all the pedal charts). However, the string players are also very uncomfortable with this – especially the cellists with 19th century instruments which don’t have the tolerance for A458 tuning. I think the plan is either to hire a chamber organ, or ask the organist to transpose down a semitone and for us to play slightly flat – thanks to Charles-Nix above for the calculations!
March 19, 2026 at 8:15 am #491560balfour-knight
ParticipantI agree on all accounts! I would never even consider tuning my harps to higher than A=440.
April 17, 2026 at 12:18 am #499587Saul Davis Zlatkovski
ParticipantYes, they need to use a different organ or have him transpose, rather than re-tune. Or play everything in a key a half-step higher, if you can. If the music is in A, play it in A-Sharp?
April 18, 2026 at 6:56 pm #500123ParticipantThat was funny, Saul! Wonder how many folks know that there is no such key as A-Sharp? Ha, ha! (I assume you meant A-Sharp Major. There IS the key of a-sharp minor, of course!) You made my day–thanks!
April 20, 2026 at 7:10 pm #500721Alison
ParticipantBalfour, but there’s always Bb major, obviously you haven’t read my ‘Strange but True’ story in the magazine…!!
April 20, 2026 at 8:24 pm #500737ParticipantI really enjoyed that story, Alison! I’m glad you can figure out all those transpositions, especially with a B flat instrument. When I was growing up, our old upright piano was in the Key of B flat, one whole step below pitch. My sister, who played the B flat trumpet, was right at home on that piano, since she could play a note on the piano to be sure she was playing that same note on the trumpet! When I later learned how to tune pianos, I pulled that old piano up to standard pitch (12 tunings, so it was very gradual!) and I don’t think my sister ever forgave me for “messing her up,” ha, ha!
Best wishes,
Balfour -
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