On Wednesday, Feb 28, 2007, at 09:28 America/Los_Angeles, Ed Durbrow 
wrote:

> Perfect pitch is a form of memory. Some percentage of people are born
> with a capacity for extraordinary memory. Why would it have been
> different then?

I think Dan asked the question because people with absolute pitch these 
days normally learn a fixed pitch standard.  They hear 440 Hz and 
recognize it as A.  He's interested in what happens when someone with 
pitch memory is exposed to several different pitch standards.  How 
would that person identify 440 Hz?  A? B flat?  I know some people with 
absolute pitch who have problems playing at A=415, because they hear 
everything a half tone flat.   I remember a poster on rec.music.early 
some years ago describing how his own absolute pitch standard changed 
when he started working with non-440 pitches.  It can apparently be a 
real hurdle.

HP



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