Perfect pitch...

[David ilvedson]

> From:          Billbrpt <Billbrpt@aol.com>
> Date:          Fri, 24 Apr 1998 09:19:55 EDT
> To:            pianotech@ptg.org
> Cc:            CajunduTX@aol.com
> Subject:       Re: Perfect pitch...
> Reply-to:      pianotech@ptg.org

I agree with Bill and lets stop this nonsense about perfect 
fifths also...

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA




> In a message dated 4/24/98 12:09:37 AM Central Daylight Time,
>  dpitsch@ix.netcom.com writes:
> 
> << What exactly does having perfect pitch mean?
>   >>
> 
> One of the most respected piano technicians in the industry, Franz Mohr (whom
>  I admire and respect greatly), the late Vladimir Horowitz's personal
>  technician and friend wrote a book called, "My Life with the Great PIanists".
>  In it, he wrote a whole chapter which refutes the very notion of "perfect
>  pitch".  He is often known to say, "There is nothing perfect in this world
>  this side of Glory".
> 
> I do not think anyone will be able to find a quote from a well-stablished
>  reference book that defines "perfect pitch".  It is simply something that
>  people say.  There may be some concensus of opinion about what it means but
>  the idea that anyone's brain is infallibly tuned to a certain frequency is
>  pure nonsense.
> 
> If you carry this idea forward, so it mean that each note of the scale must
>  infallibly equal the frequencies that Helmholtz defined?  If so, then one
>  should tune a piano with a Strobe Tuner and be done with it for then that
>  piano will have "perfect pitch".  If you accept that the piano's tuning must
>  have small deviations in order to compensate for inharmonicity (which it must)
>  and that these deviations are different from piano to piano, where is there
>  "perfection" in the pitch?
> 
> Now what about these Historical Temperaments?  Their intervals are all
>  different than Helmholtz' scheme which purports to "solve the problem".  No
>  musicians or singers ever have a problem playing in tune with a piano tuned
>  this way, those kinds of intervals were what was common practice until
>  relatively recently.  They are natural to music.  If different kinds of
>  intervals can all be musically acceptable, where is the "perfection" in the
>  pitch?
> 
> Some singers and other musicians claim to have "perfect pitch".  Yet any good
>  modern performer uses vibrato and portamento to make the musical phrasing
>  sound pleasing to modern musical taste.  If every musical instrument or voice
>  were tuned to only the frequencies that Helmholtz came up with and were not
>  allowed any bending of these frequencies with vibrato or portamento, all music
>  would indeed sound uninteresting and dull.
> 
> Just last weekend, I saw a touring company production of Rogers &
>  Hammerstein's Carousel.  One might have said that it was a "perfect"
>  performance.  There was not a single flaw.  It was over in exactly 2 1/2
>  hours.  Instead of a full orchestra, there were a few instruments and a couple
>  of synthesizers (tuned in ET, of course).  There was no "milking" of phrases.
>  All tempos were strictly held.  There were no pauses for sustained applause.
>  Nothing sounded the least bit out of tune but there was also none of the very
>  special quality that an orchestra pit full of real professional musicians has
>  either.  In my opinion, it was an extremely lifeless and uninteresting
>  interpretation of the music, but it was "perfect".
> 
> >From the time I was a child, I could recognize which note was being played on
>  our piano at home even though the instrument was never tuned from the time it
>  was delivered until 8 years later.  I still remember the man who tuned it
>  telling me that it had drifted flat from "about 1/4 step in the middle to 1/2
>  step in the treble".  People had told me back then that I had "perfect pitch"
>  but when I realized that I could tell one note from the other whether or not
>  the piano were tuned, I realized there was nothing perfect about anything.  I
>  found the work of a piano technician so fascinating that I became one later
>  on.  Today, I can tell which note is which, which chord is which, which key is
>  being played in whether the piano is tuned or not, no matter what the pitch is
>  and regardless of temperament.  There is nothing "perfect" about any of that
>  and so I do not claim to have "perfect" pitch, I merely have a "good ear" or
>  natural aptitude music.
> 
> Franz Mohr said in part,  "Over the years, quite a number of people have
>  claimed to me that they have perfect pitch. (snip)  [This] would mean being
>  able to say, without any reference point, that middle A is vibrating at 442
>  cps, or that it is vibrating at 438.  (snip)  No one with their natural sense
>  of hearing can differentiate..."
> 
> I do hear stories of people whose sensitivity to whether an A4 is really 440
>  or not seems to be amazingly accurate.  Tuning to A440 consistently is
>  important for many reasons.  If we, as musicians always hear A4 at 440, we may
>  well be able to recognize a very slight deviation from it when tuning.  If we
>  hear something different every time, how could we know the difference?
> 
> Franz Mohr goes on to give a number of anecdotes about standard versus non
>  standard pitch and people who claim to have "perfect pitch".  While there may
>  be some people with a very good sense of pitch, I have never seen any
>  scientific study where any individual has been proven to have an infallible
>  sense of pitch.  All reports are always anecdotal.  Even if someone were to
>  prove that a certain individual could consistently and without error detect
>  more than a 1¢ deviation of 440 with no pitch reference, my reaction would be,
>  "so what?".  Does that make that person a better musician?  What particular
>  advantage is there to that?
> 
> For the sake of those who are outsiders who may read this List for research
>  and information purposes, let's please not have professional piano technicians
>  using the term, "perfect pitch".  It is not a valid concept, it is just a
>  popular notion.
> 
> Bill Bremmer RPT
> Madison, Wisconsin
>  
> 
> 
>