Ha, you guys are kids! I am 65 and still going strong, except in the male enhancement department.
I am sure there have been other threads on the high pitch,low pitch topic. On many old cornets that have all their parts, some times there are several lengths of lead pipes for different tunings, I guess. I think high pitch was a centime above the low pitch A+440.
Info from a history of early instruments on the web.
As the twentieth centruy progressed, a mouthpipe fixed to A=440 or "low" pitch, became standard. Transposition, therefore, eventually became a necessary component of the cornetist training in the twentieth century. It is not a concern for the cornetist of the ninetiinth century, because of the wide variety of shanks and crooks available to the player.
Alignment of valves in cornets during the nineteenth century was done in a variety of ways. 1. a key on the piston guided the valve, 2. Three unequal lugs on the spring plate guided the valve, 3. a key on the capsule or sleeve surrounding the spring guided the valve, 4. . A screwed pin in the casing guided the valve, 5. A key on the housing and the slot in the piston guided the valve.
In the Edinburgh collection pitch levels on cornets varied greatly
1. Diapson Normal Pitch ( A=435), 2. A=440, 3. Old Philharmonic Pitch (A =452.5),4a. Pitches as high as 100 cents above A=440 existed on some instruments.
As the century progressed, pitches of A=440 and the Old Philharmonic pitch were more common. The high pitch, OPP, was actualy used in England until 1929, properly referred to as "military band, high pitch" instruments. The American Federation of Musician attempted to stanardize at A=440 in 1917, but was not accepted till 1920, which was considered low pitch. a convention of the time was to stame "LP" on leadpipes for such indication. Many cornet players would bring differnt pitched instrument to a job to see what tuned best
You can get the cornet compendium site from Nick DeCarlis'
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