However, and I confess I don't remember the details, some
researchers
seem to think that there is an absolute pitch independent of
memory.
The problem with that, as we both realize, is that it presupposes
something like a Platonic Ideal of A at 440 imbedded in our
synapses.
Two other interesting things: it appears that most people
internalize
their native musical scale at around 9 months, the same time you
internalize the phoneme set of your native language. And most
people
form their musical taste at around 13, just when it's an important
group identifier,
Another way of observing that the the pop music industry pitches a
lot of its product to teenagers
and have very little desire or, it appears, even
ability, to appreciate musics outside of those preferences.
Don't you just love pseudo-science? Someone with a Ph.D. in
behavioral science or statistics or whatever thinks "musical taste"
can be quantified and measured. Just start plugging in specifics
and you'll see how meaningless it is. It involves all sorts of
assumed judgments about what music is or is not sufficiently similar
to other music. (It's 1962 in Toledo, Ohio, you're 18 and hear the
Beatles for the first time and love what you hear. Are you
appreciating music outside of the preferences you acquired at 13, if
you were listening to Elvis at 13? If your favorite record was the
Music Man original cast album? Nat King Cole's greatest hits? Or is
your area of preference Western popular music? What if you take up
the lute at 35?)
To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
