A noncontact acoustical system has been developed which measures Young’s modulus of solid materials at high temperature with⩽0.05%accuracy. The system employs capacitive (or electrostatic) transducers to excite and detect vibrations of millimeter-sized resonant tuning forks, whose resonance frequencies alter with changing temperature and material properties. The use of tuning forks in their fundamental symmetric modes of vibration provide resonances of highQ’s and eliminate irreversible frequency and drift effects that occur with other forms of resonator. The use of noncontact capacitive transducers reduces the damping and stresses that otherwise occur with contacting transducers, and allows the system to be simply and accurately modeled. Both single crystal silicon tuning forks, and those manufactured from hydrided and unhydrided Zr–2.5%Nb, were investigated at temperatures up to 700 °C. The measured responses of silicon forks confirmed the system accuracy, and suggested that single-crystal silicon be standardized as a calibration material for acoustical measurement systems. Results obtained with Zr–2.5%Nb tuning forks allowed an accurate quantitative analysis of the effects of hydride dissolution and precipitation on Young’s modulus, and confirmed that Young’s modulus of hydrided Zr–2.5%Nb decreases in proportion to free hydrogen concentration. This experimental system should prove valuable for accurate modeling of high-temperature material transformations in solids.