<HTML>In a message dated 11/6/01 1:11:39 PM Central Standard Time, gee19685@GlaxoWellcome.com (Evoniuk, Gary E) writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">I agree that much of the perfect pitch phenomenon is aural memory.  A few very fine instrumentalists and conductors have what I would call very *fine* pitch memory and can hear the difference between 442 and 440 without an external reference (thinking of Pierre Boulez, some of the principal oboes in US orchestras).  For every one of them, there are probably hundreds of BS-artists who claim they can hear the difference.  I don't claim to be in either camp, but this very second I can remember quite well what pitch my A-fork sounds (just don't ask me to sing it, as I am a lousy singer). </BLOCKQUOTE>  The sound of a tuning fork is very unmusical.  It has no richness to it and no vibrato.  When the oboist sounds the tuning pitch for the orchestra, the player also refrains from using any vibrato and these days, most have an electronic tuner that they place on the music stand to verify their pitch. As someone who has studied voice seriously more than half my life, I can hardly sing a note without using some kind of vibrato which, by definition means an oscillation it frequency. That Just Intonation article aside, to me, it means intervals that are beatless.  While there are a few musical circumstances where perfectly pure pitches and beatless intervals may occur, for the most part, those would not even be appropriate. Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin</HTML>