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  • Research

    The fundamental principle of IRCAM is to encourage productive interaction among scientific research, technological developments, and contemporary music production. Since its establishment in 1977, this initiative has provided the foundation for the institute’s activities. One of the major issues is the importance of contributing to the renewal of musical expression through science and technology. Conversely, sp…

    • Research Topics
    • The STMS Lab
    • Research Teams
    • Sound Systems and Signals: Audio/Acoustics, InstruMents
    • Acoustic and Cognitive Spaces
    • Perception and Sound Design
    • Sound Analysis-Synthesis
    • Sound Music Movement Interaction
    • Musical Representations
    • Analysis of Musical Practices
    • Projects
    • Sound Workshop
    • The Musical Body
    • Creative Dynamics
    • Musique/Sciences Collection
  • Creation

    IRCAM is an internationally recognized research center dedicated to creating new technologies for music. The institute offers a unique experimental environment where composers strive to enlarge their musical experience through the concepts expressed in new technologies.

    • Composers & Artists in Studio
    • In Ex Machina
    • Jazz Ex Machina
    • Improvise cum machina 1/2
    • Improvise cum machina 2/2
    • Like Sound, Like Flesh
    • Silent Talks
    • Music-Fictions
    • Tablado
    • Musical creation around Outer Space
    • Campo Abierto
    • Musical creation around Dream Work
    • Biotope
    • EROR
    • IDEA
    • Artistic Research Residency
    • Artistic Residencies: The Blog
    • Rendez Vous 20.21
    • Season 2021.22
    • Seasons from 1996 to present
    • ManiFeste-2022
    • ManiFeste festival from 2012 to 2022
    • L’Étincelle, IRCAM’s journal of creation
  • Transmission

    In parallel to its fundamental missions of research and creation, IRCAM is committed to sharing its knowledge and know-how, its technologies with the general public. Cutting-edge research and diffusion of innovations, an international reference for education and the democratization of artistic practices are the driving forces behind the institute’s educational activities.

    • 2022.23 Training Courses
    • Max, Max for Live
    • OpenMusic
    • Modalys
    • TS2 and Partiels
    • Sound spatialization
    • From PureData to audio plugins
    • Sensors, Interfaces, and Interactive Machine Learning
    • Other training programs
    • Practical Information
    • Advanced Programs
    • Cursus Program on Composition and Computer Music
    • Supersonic Chair
    • Master ATIAM
    • Sound Design Master's Program
    • Music Doctorate
    • AIMove Master
    • School Programs
    • Studios of Creation
    • Mixed-Music
    • Artistic and Cultural Education
    • Career Discovery Visit
    • Art School Reserach and Creation Workshop
    • Images of a Work Collection
    • ManiFeste-2022, the Academy
  • Innovations

    At the center of societal and economic concerns combining culture and information technologies, the current research at IRCAM is seen by the international research community as a reference for interdisciplinary projects on the sciences and technologies for sound and music, constantly exposed to society’s new needs and uses.

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  • Tuning the world
  • Tuning the world






Tuning the world

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A century of international negotiations around "A"
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The determination of a unified measure for music has long been a highly debated question, at the center of intense negotiations between countries, and across fields of knowledge. Reflecting the significance of these exchanges, archives and collections across the world hold rich material, dating from the beginning of the nineteenth century, documenting the conversations and practices that ultimately led to the adoption of concert pitch A 440, during an international conference held in London in 1939. These sources have remained largely unexplored and no study has yet explained the creation of this unit. While historians of science have shown the labour and compromised nature of standards by analysing the historical contingencies of their production, A 440 has escaped attention, often appearing as a self-evidently beneficial musical practice.


Drawing on intensive archival and material research, Fanny Gribenski aims at uncovering the musical dimension of efforts to order natural phenomena and examines the construction of a sonic point of reference for the Western world. Tuning the World is the working title of the monograph that shall assemble the bulk of her research of several years. Through a combination of music and sound studies, transnational history, and science studies, this book will provide a sonic expansion to previous works on scientific and technical standards, highlighting the fields of expertise and actors involved in fixing A 440, as well as the tools, strategies and policies developed in order to measure, control and regulate sound frequencies.

This research addresses several crucial questions: why did pitch standardization become a topic of preoccupation in the early nineteenth century? Which actors and countries were empowered in the negotiations regarding the definition of A? And what were the procedures governing the making of this standard? By answering them, this project demonstrates the contingencies underlying the historical construction of concert pitch A 440, and chart the social networks aimed at literally tuning the world.

IRCAM Team: Analysis of Musical Practices

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