Absolute pitch again.

kam544@flash.net kam544@flash.net
Tue, 5 Sep 2000 08:27:31 -0500


>... on my machine they are all flat by 3-4 cps.
>12 cents off is perfect?  But I wonder if someone with
>really perfect pitch would recognize this?...    ---ric

Wondering won't do it, Richard.  I have no doubt that some with
absolute/perfect pitch would easily know the cents discrepancy you mention
exists, while there would be some who would not, yet still would be able to
identitify the correct note/tone.

My position is that 12 cents off A440 doesn't negate the note/tone from
being in the domain of A440.  However, 51 cents + or -  does.  It is
measurable, much in a fashion as a property line.

Decide for yourself by taking into account the following reference sources:
----
Absolute Pitch
2. Music. The ability to identify or sing any tone heard. In this sense,
also called perfect pitch.
(American Heritage Dictionary, Electronic Edition)
----
Perfect pitch, the sense of pitch that enables a person to identify a tone
heard and name it as a note on a musical scale; absolute pitch.
(Dictionary, World Book Encyclopedia)
----
"Absolute, or perfect, pitch is the ability to identify by ear any note at some
standard pitch or to sing a specified note, say G, at will. Fully developed
absolute pitch is rare. It appears early in childhood and is apparently an
acute
form of memory of sounds of a particular instrument, such as the home
piano.  Some musicians slowly acquire a degree of absolute pitch, if only
for the familiar a' =440."
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/4/0,5716,61724+1,00.html
----
"Absolute Pitch." Oxford Companion to Music. 9th ed. 1960.
http://shrike.depaul.edu/~abreeden/bib.htm
----
Perfect Pitch
http://www.dfan.org/pitch.html
----
More
http://search.excite.com/search.gw?search=perfect+pitch

Keith McGavern
Registered Piano Technician
Oklahoma Chapter 731
Piano Technicians Guild
USA




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