Is it better to choose 440 Hz or 432 Hz to tune an acoustic piano?
My acoustic upright piano is 110 years old, made in 1910. Last time I had it tuned, the tuner used a 440 Hz tuning fork and tuned it by ear, but he broke my B♭7 string. If a piano is not used in an orchestra, but only home use, wouldn't it be better to tune middle A to 432 Hz (Verdi's A) which better resonates with the fundamental 8 Hz Schumann resonance? This lower tuning might sound better and extend string life.
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The correct answer is 440hz; this is the accepted 12-tone standard in Western Music. While you are certainly free to choose whatever tuning standard you so desire, the British commission made a decision on 440hz as the best compromise between tuning standards that reached above 450 in some parts of the world.
The reason for a worldwide standardized tuning of A4 is so each note sounded the same whether in Europe or in China. This made things easier for Musicians.
Today, 440hz remains the standard while there is nothing wrong with experimenting and finding what you like.
When playing period music, on period instruments, they are tuned to the standard of that time, if at all possible. Partly to be authentic, mostly to be kind to the instruments. Understandably.
Given that your piano is old, thus the strings probably are too, any Hz lower than 440 will be kinder. There's no good reason to use 432Hz, though. If it was mine, I'd probably go for making B♭ 440Hz. Then at least I could play along with the majority of stuff that's recorded or on the radio - or even along with others that were concert pitch tuned - albeit a semitone out. But that's me.
From your position, any lower tuning would suffice, although there would come a point where the strings were too loose, and sound quality would suffer. I guess that's where tuning experience comes in. An awful lot of older pianos never get back to their original concert pitch, tuners are happier to leave then slightly under, for many good reasons.
Thus - if it's dropped slightly, just get it tuned to itself at that pitch. 440Hz, 432Hz, 428Hz, whatever, it'll still work. Back in the '60s, guitar bands would tune to whoever was best in tune already - that didn't stop things sounding good, even if it was 'in the cracks'!
It might extend string life, and it might make the piano sound rather dull since the strings may be designed for the tension at which A is 440 Hz or even higher. Whether it's better is a matter of opinion.
The fact that Verdi used 432 Hz (if that is in fact true; this is the first I've heard of it) has very little bearing on the tuning of a piano unless it is a piano of Verdi's time. It might also be of interest for singers of Verdi's music.
The fact that 432 is differently resonant with 8 Hz than is 440 Hz is not relevant in the least. The number is just an arbitrary standard based on an arbitrary unit of time. The second is hardly a fundamental constant of nature.
As Tim points out in his answer, if an old piano's pitch is low, it might be a good idea to leave it low. Whether 432 is a good frequency for A would really depend on the piano, not on any fanciful numerological ideas.
I tune my own piano and I experimented with tuning to lower frequency because I use A432 when I play ukulele (it makes singing easier for me). A jump to A432 on my piano resulted in the lower frequencies sounding a little dull and "gummy." So I tuned the lower notes as low as I could get them while still maintaining a *nice tone (*which really is in the ear of the beholder and very subjective). For my piano, it ended up at A436. It took some time to do but the experiment was fun amd I do prefer a lower frequency. At A435, it was still pleasant, but it was at the cusp of "gummy" on the lowest A to E which is why I went with A436.
If an acoustic piano is required to play with other instruments tuned to concert pitch then it will be better to tune the piano to 440 Hz. If the piano is not going to play with other musical instruments ( other than voice ) then it can be acceptable to tune it to 432 Hz assuming the piano tuner has a 432Hz tuning fork. Next time I get my piano tuned I may ask for the 432 Hz = middle A just to check out any difference in the harmonies and resonance.
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