concert pitch

Music. a standard of pitch used for tuning orchestral instruments, usually established at 440 vibrations per second for A above middle C.

a state of heightened eagerness, readiness, or tension: Spring training had brought the athletes up to concert pitch for the beginning of the season.

Origin of concert pitch

First recorded in 1760–70

But what mattered it when we were at concert-pitch, and bears for the tune?

American Big-Game Hunting |Various
Something inside Coryndon's brain tightened like a string of a violin tuned up to concert-pitch.

The Pointing Man |Marjorie Douie
Acton's sweating no end to screw us up to concert-pitch, and flat mutiny is his reward.

Acton's Feud |Frederick Swainson
A man cannot be at concert-pitch all day long with his mistress any more easily than with his wife.

One Man's View |Leonard Merrick

Her innocence of what he was doing—of what it was necessary for him to do to remain at concert-pitch—was supreme.

The Drunkard |Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull

concert pitch

the frequency of 440 hertz assigned to the A above middle C See pitch 1 (def. 30), international pitch

informal a state of extreme readiness