Klarinet Archive - Posting 000246.txt from 2004/10

From: "Lacy, Edwin" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] Flutophones
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 11:06:14 -0400

From Leila Loban:

<<<I know it was 1953 because my brother was a large but not yet
crawling baby when the rest of the family tried out this novelty. The
intonation was so appalling that none of us could stand it. My baby
bother, who turned out to have absolute pitch, screamed and thrashed as
if he had a million fleas in his diaper until we stopped passing the
Tonette.>>>

This is very fascinating to me, as I have always been interested in the
phenomenon of absolute pitch. The generally accepted wisdom seems to be
that what is involved is absolute pitch MEMORY. If that is true, then
it would be unusual for a small child, who presumably had not yet been
made aware of the relationship between the pitches of our musical system
and their note name designations, to exhibit this trait.

How did his pitch perception manifest itself in his later years? Is he
now a musician? Did he have familiarity with the piano keyboard at an
early age?

Ed Lacy
University of Evansville

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