pitch (redirected from Pitch up)

pitch, in music

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.

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pitch, in aviation

pitch, in aviation: see airplane; airfoil.

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pitch, substance

pitch: see tar and pitch.

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pitch

In music, position of a single sound in the complete range of sound; this quality varies with the number of vibrations per second (hertz, Hz) of the sounding body and is perceived as highness or lowness. A higher pitch has a higher number of vibrations. In Western music, standard pitches have long been used to facilitate tuning. A confusing variety of pitches prevailed until the 19th century, when the continual rise in pitch made some international agreement a matter of practical necessity. In 1939 the A above middle C was standardized as 440 Hz. See also interval; tuning and temperament.

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pitch

The number of printed characters per inch. With proportionally spaced characters, the pitch is variable and must be measured as an average. See dot pitch and pitch-yaw-roll.

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pitch¹

1. Mountaineering a section of a route between two belay points, sometimes equal to the full length of the rope but often shorter

2. the degree of slope of a roof, esp when expressed as a ratio of height to span

3. the distance between corresponding points on adjacent members of a body of regular form, esp the distance between teeth on a gearwheel or between threads on a screw thread

4. the distance between regularly spaced objects such as rivets, bolts, etc.

5. 

a. the distance a propeller advances in one revolution, assuming no slip

b. the blade angle of a propeller or rotor

6. Music

a. the auditory property of a note that is conditioned by its frequency relative to other notes

b. an absolute frequency assigned to a specific note, fixing the relative frequencies of all other notes. The fundamental frequencies of the notes A--G, in accordance with the frequency A = 440 hertz, were internationally standardized and accepted in 1939

7. Cricket the rectangular area between the stumps, 22 yards long and 10 feet wide; the wicket

8. Geology the inclination of the axis of an anticline or syncline or of a stratum or vein from the horizontal

9. another name for seven-up

10. the act or manner of pitching a ball, as in cricket

11. Chiefly Brit a vendor's station, esp on a pavement

12. Golf an approach shot in which the ball is struck in a high arc

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pitch²

1. any of various heavy dark viscid substances obtained as a residue from the distillation of tars

2. any of various similar substances, such as asphalt, occurring as natural deposits

3. any of various similar substances obtained by distilling certain organic substances so that they are incompletely carbonized

4. crude turpentine obtained as sap from pine trees