There was actually an upward trend in music, called “pitch inflation,” caused by the perception that higher notes sounded better. In competition to make their music sound best, musicians would adjust their “A” note higher and higher. In some areas pitch inflation became so severe that not only did strings begin snapping more frequently (from the higher tensions they were put under), but singers began to complain that songs were rising out of their ranges. This led to governments actually passing laws that defined a fixed value for “A,” the earliest being the French government in 1859 CE.
