The History of the Pitch Pipe

I heard John Gough's story of listening to a vintage recording of a barbershop quartet on a wind- up gramophone while he was touring the headquarter building of the Barbershop Harmony Society in Nashville, Tennessee.  He mentioned that it started off with a piano playing the beginning few notes of the song before the quartet was left singing the song alone, and John mentioned that it was likely done that way because back in the time of that recording, the pitch pipe had not been invented and the piano was used to give the singers an on key start.


I became interested in finding out just when the pitch pipe had been invented and, as we do when we are interested in pretty much anything today in this technology advanced age, I Googled it and came up with the following link that takes you to a site page that contains the written history of the pitch pipe that is used by most barbershoppers today.  Click on it and enjoy reading.


http://www.gradywilliamkerr.com/PitchPipes/PitchPipe.html