Klarinet Archive - Posting 000052.txt from 1999/02

From: Neil Leupold <nleupold@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] Perfect Pitch
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 23:54:56 -0500

On Mon, 1 Feb 1999, Steven J Goldman, MD wrote:

> The curse is when a person has an unusually acute memory for specific
> frequencies. If they have an internal sense that A is, say, 440, they feel
> uncomfortable when listening to a performance of a familiar piece at A 430
> or whatever. They have problems with any variation from their internal
> tuning fork. It's a curse because "standard" pitch is arbitrary and has
> changed over time and geographic location, so they are needlessly upset by
> these variations. Luckily, this type of perfect pitch is rare.

Everybody I've ever met who had perfect pitch has had the degree of
sensitivity described above. They describe it not as "memory", but
rather as an intuitive perception over which they exercise no con-
scious control. It is akin to most people's natural ability to i-
dentify colors of the rainbow. We know what red looks like, whether
or not any other color is present in what is being viewed. This is
a form of "absolute" vision, with no point of additional reference
beyond the color itself. The same idea applies to perfect...or "ab-
solute"...pitch. People with true perfect pitch are able to discern
not merely one note, but any note, in any register, in any series,
isolated, or in a group. Perfect pitch is not an inherently musical
ability -- meaning: musicians aren't the only people who have it.
It's just an extrasensory glitch with which some people are born.

Steven Goldman also wrote:

> The more common phenomena is an sensitivity to musical intervals. They may
> not necessarily notice variations of the frequency of a note by itself from
> one time to another, but they are very aware of changes in temperament, and
> thus know when a note is out of tune. These are the people who have problems
> with keyboard instruments because of the compromised intervals.

The above is more typical of highly developed *relative* pitch, as opposed
to perfect pitch. People with strong relative pitch are often able to de-
velop pitch *and* intonation memory, where they are able to remember in
their heads certain pitches, as well as whether a particular sounded pitch
is in tune or not. Such an ability, however, almost always involves either
an internal refererance pitch (heard in the "mind's ear"), or memory of
only a limited number of pitches -- without the objective sensory ability
possessed by those with perfect pitch. I have this kind of well-developed
relative pitch. Without any external reference tone, I can sight-sing any
melody placed before me with all of the right pitches -- because I have
trained myself to become adept at on-sight interval recognition between
notes. With concert A firmly implanted in my mind's ear, it's a small
task to sing the C# or a Eb or whatever other note with which a melody
might begin. From there, every subsequent interval is immediately
recognizable and singable to me. This is relative pitch. It's what
every undergraduate college music major must develop -- to at least a
minimal degree -- in order to pass an aural skills curriculum.

Neil

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