In a message dated 9/5/00 11:11:08 AM, tito@PhilBondi.com writes:
<< As I get older, I am recognizing that I do not identify A=440 as easily as
I
once did >>
Rook, my nearly "pefect pitch" seems exactly the same as yours in many
respects including my accuracy deteriorating slightly in the last 5 years or
so. (I am 48.)
<<a customer's piano that I have said "sounds pretty close" to be as much as
20 cents flat..that to me is not 'pretty close'..but if someone were to sit
down on the same piano before I knew how flat it was and was to play chords,
notes, or a song, I could identify the chords, the notes, or the key the song
was in..I would get them all right..so that's perfect?>>
This also mirrors my own experiences. Interestingly, I have recordings of
the Beethoven Symphonies with Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. I guess
they must tune significantly sharp. At the beginning of each symphony, I
know, of course, what key this symphony is written in, and I perceive them at
the pitch they are written, but somewhere during the developement section, it
modulates through the circle of fifths, or perhaps it goes through some
chromatic modulation of sorts, and I start to hear the piece a half step
high. My ear QUANTIZES the pitch up or down to the apparently nearest half
step.
<<yes I believe there are varying degrees of perfectness with this
'gift' that some of us have>>
I agree; I do not claim to have perfect pitch. It's pretty close...but no
cigar. I attribute this to my tuning experience. I think perfect pitch does
have something to with pitch memory, and because I am adjusting the pitch on
so many pianos, my ear no longer perceives an 'A' as a finite, quantified
thing. (...I mean, "thingee") My ear no longer has a "role model" of what an
'A' is. I mean where does 'G#' end and 'A' begin? It was never an issue
when I was younger, making my living as a pianist. (Back in the old days
when an 'A' was an 'A'!)
Tom S.
Chicago Area
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