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From: alves@calvin.usc.edu (William Alves)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: Perfect Pitch as a Birth Defect....
Message-ID: <31961@usc>
Date: 15 Apr 91 17:38:00 GMT
References: <346@heurikon.heurikon.com> <3177@esquire.dpw.com> <12727@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
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In article <12727@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> charless@cory.Berkeley.EDU writes:
>In article <3177@esquire.dpw.com> rreid@esquire.UUCP (r l reid ) writes:
>>
>>This is what I haven't been understanding about the whole concept -
>>if "perfect pitch" is inborn,  does this imply that 12-to-the-8ve,
>>equal temperament is somehow wired into the brain by the Creator?
>>
>The newborn p.p. baby doesn't know what pitch the doctor whistled as she
>left the delivery room, but next time the baby hears it, she recognizes it
>as the same pitch.  If you played her a note a quarter tone higher, she could
>remember that too.  But you don't-- the notes you play her are generally
>equally tempered steps apart, so these are the ones she learns names for.
>
I think you're both right in assuming equal-tempered "perfect pitch" is
learned. 12-tone equal temperament has not been handed down engraved on
stone tablets. However, a couple of interesting questions remain -- if
a general "pitch memory" ability is inborn, as some have claimed, how are
such people recognized in a society which has no standard tuning system
nor absolute pitch reference? And does this perfect pitch mean that one
can discriminate, say, to the resolution of cents? If so, why do those
with perfect pitch seem to be so bothered by music which is played at 
A=445, for example? I remember playing an electronic piece I had done in
just intonation for a professor with perfect pitch once. He seemed okay
with the 5/4 thirds and 3/2 fifths, but when it got to the 7/4 sevenths
and 7/6 thirds he would visibly wince. Is this reaction simply a result
of his ability, or a result of his expectations of what music SHOULD sound
like?

Bill Alves