[pianotech] OT: Perfect pitch and temperaments

[David Love]

Perfect pitch is not perfect enough to, say, chromatically tune and octave's
worth of notes and have them all come out in a perfect equal temperament.
People with pitch identification capacity are able to identify within a
range.  If you play an A440, an A425, and A450 they will recognize all of
those as A's but may not recognize sharp or flat from a particular
reference.  That ability probably depends on their musical experience,
training, instrument familiarity or other factors.  Many people who have
perfect pitch aren't necessarily musicians.  There's a strong genetic
component plus, it seems, a critical window for it to develop.  There is an
interesting and ongoing study at UCSF (University of California San
Francisco)  being run be a genetic researcher that I know well.  There is
nothing written in the genetic code about A440.  The ability has to do with
the ability to memorize or identify pitch much like most of us identify,
say, color.  We can all pick out red but many colors will fall under the
classification of red that are on both sides of the spectrum.   During the
historical period when A was lower than 440 people with perfect pitch
weren't constantly complaining that the A they were hearing sounded flat.
The memorized "A" pitch simply had a different hertz reference.  Consider
this.  Take a singer with a great sense of pitch and have them sing a one
octave chromatic scale.  Record it.  Precisely measure each note and
translate that to the tuning of a single octave.  See how it sounds.  Tuning
a piano is a different thing altogether when measured at that level of
precision.   

 

David Love

www.davidlovepianos.com

 

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Steven Hopp
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 6:09 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] OT: Perfect pitch and temperaments

 

Hi,
 
This is not an answer but an observation.  Locally there is a tuner who
claims to have perfect pitch and even informs his clients
of this and yet he tunes with an SAT III.  Go figure?
 
Steven Hopp
Midland, TX.  

  _____  

From: KeyKat88 at aol.com
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:25:14 -0400
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] OT: Perfect pitch and temperaments




Greetings, 

 

      How can anyone have perfect pitch?

 

      Yesterday,  I tuned for a retired piano tuner, who had tuned his piano
about 3 months ago. (I dont know why he hired me) He says he has perfect
pitch.   Lo and behold, when I examined his work, although 3 months a "worn"
tuning, it was pretty much "dead on".

 

     Question:  Now, if a person "au moderne" (nowdays) says they have
perfect pitch, were/are humans' ears built differently than say, in
Beethoven's day, where those living at that time who claimed that they had
perfect pitch???

 

      I dont get it. Does the human ear get used to what temperaments are in
vogue at the time?

 

Julia

Reading, PA 

 

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