[pianotech] Question about perfect pitch

[Tom Sivak]

Depends on the person.  I think it would distract me, at least at times.  Distract me in the sense of, wait a minute, what key is this piece in, now?

My ear, or actually my brain, I guess, will quantize the pitches up or down.  At 60 cents flat, basically right in the middle, my brain would recognize some of the pitches/chords up a half step, and others down.   This would make it difficult in a piece, like Bach for instance, that modulates from one key to the next.

I have recordings of the Berlin Philharmonic performing the Beethoven Symphonies.  I don't know how sharp they tuned, but at times I start to hear things up a half step from where I know they are written.  Like the 7th Symphony in A Major for instance--in the exposition of the opening movement, Beethoven stays in the key of A and finishes in E---my ear/brain easily goes along with the ride, sharp though it may be.  Sounds like A major to me, because I know that it's in A.

But once I hear the development section, and Beethoven starts going through the circle of fifths, I realize that I am recognizing some of the chords up a half step.  I know this because as we approach the recap, it sounds like it's going to be in Bb major instead of A.

Of course, at the instant of realizing this, I instantly flip back into the right key in my head and all is fine through the end of the movement.

So, for me, a piano that was specifically 60 cents flat would bother me in certain musical situations.  If the music was a popular tune or something that basically stays in one key, it wouldn't bother me all that much.

At least not as much as out of tune unisons, or a bass section that was 20 cents sharper than the steel strings.  THAT drives me nutz!

Tom Sivak
Chicago


--- On Fri, 5/8/09, KeyKat88 at aol.com <KeyKat88 at aol.com> wrote:

> From: KeyKat88 at aol.com <KeyKat88 at aol.com>
> Subject: [pianotech] Question about perfect pitch
> To: pianotech at ptg.org
> Date: Friday, May 8, 2009, 12:38 PM
> Greetings,
>  
>          Are people with "perfect pitch" really
> bothered by  music played 
> on an old upright that is tuned say,  60 cents or a half
> step flat because it 
> cant be brought up to pitch? 
>  
>  
> Thank you, 
> Julia
> PA
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